We prove that the weakly damped cubic Schrödinger flow in $L^2(\T)$ provides a dynamical system that possesses a global attractor. The proof relies on a sharp study of the behavior of the associated flow-map with respect to the weak $ L^2(\T) $-convergence inspired by a previous work of the author. Combining the compactness in $ L^2(\T) $ of the attractor with the approach developed by Goubet, we show that the attractor is actually a compact set of $ H^2(\T) $. This asymptotic smoothing effect is optimal in view of the regularity of the steady states.