### Exploit - Failure to Initialize - Remix Example Failure to initialize can clear be incredibly impactful. Let's see how the exploit works. The [**sc-exploits-minimized repo**](https://github.com/Cyfrin/sc-exploits-minimized) has a link to a failure to initialize [**example in Remix**](https://remix.ethereum.org/#url=https://github.com/Cyfrin/sc-exploits-minimized/blob/main/src/failure-to-initialize/FailureToInitialize.sol&lang=en&optimize=false&runs=200&evmVersion=null&version=soljson-v0.8.20+commit.a1b79de6.js). <details> <summary>FailureToInitialize.sol</summary> > **Note:** I've added the initializer modifier to our initialize function here. This is omitted in the video version of this lesson. Feel free to copy this contract into your Remix instance. ```js // SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT pragma solidity 0.8.20; import "@openzeppelin/contracts/proxy/utils/Initializable.sol"; contract FailureToInitialize is Initializable { uint256 public myValue; bool public initialized; function initialize(uint256 _startingValue) public initializer{ myValue = _startingValue; initialized = true; } // We should have a check here to make sure the contract was initialized! function increment() public { myValue++; } } ``` </details> The example here is very simple, but it should illustrate the potential impact of failing to initialize. Go ahead and compile and deploy `FailureToInitialize.sol` ::image{src='/security-section-6/21-failure-to-initialize-remix/failure-to-initialize-remix1.png' style='width: 100%; height: auto;'} You should see it begin initialized with `myValue` set to zero. If the protocol then proceeds to be used (by calling `increment`), the `initialize` function can be called at any time to overwrite the expected `myValue`. ::image{src='/security-section-6/21-failure-to-initialize-remix/failure-to-initialize-remix2.png' style='width: 100%; height: auto;'} If our `myValue` is changed on us via initialize, we're not even able to re-initialize to fix `myValue` now, effectively breaking our protocol! ::image{src='/security-section-6/21-failure-to-initialize-remix/failure-to-initialize-remix3.png' style='width: 100%; height: auto;'} You could imagine a situation like this impacting the management of something very important - like billions of dollars. Failure to initialize can be a very severe attack path depending on the architecture of the protocol and what's being initialized. In the next lesson we'll take a look at a case study where in this exact type of negligence resulted in some pretty severe consequences. Let's go!