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Glossary

Ice Phishing

A phishing technique that tricks the victim into signing a token approval or `setApprovalForAll` — granting the attacker permission to drain the wallet later.

Most crypto phishing in 2023–2024 was "ice phishing", a term coined by Microsoft. The malicious site asks the user to sign an innocent- looking transaction that is actually a token approval — typically approve(attacker, MAX_UINT256) for an ERC-20, or setApprovalForAll(attacker, true) for NFTs.

No funds move at signing; the wallet looks normal. The attacker returns later — sometimes weeks later — and uses the approval to drain everything the contract is approved on. Hardware wallets that show approval scopes, transaction simulators, and periodic approval revocation are the standard defenses.