A Guide to Ensuring Smart Contract Security

One of the largest cryptocurrency thefts took place in August 2021. Digital currency valued at $613 million was stolen by hackers from Poly Network. They took advantage of a flaw in Poly Network's digital contract. They further compromised the security of the company's smart contracts by taking advantage of this security flaw. This resulted in the disclosure of their client data and ultimately revenue loss. This article will cover how to ensure the security of smart contracts during smart contract development under smart contract development services,  its correct application, and the most frequently encountered flaws in a smart contracts platform to avoid such circumstances.

Common Smart Contract Security Vulnerabilities

Here are some of the most significant issues and smart contract security flaws that have been identified.

Improper Development of ERC20 Tokens

Small differences between the newly produced token and the actual ERC20 standard may cause the contract's non-functional method to fail and result in trapped funds and blocked contracts since the contract won't be able to recognize the interface.

Timestamp Continuity

Contracts may include time-stamp requirements for completing specific tasks. The manipulation by the miners is the issue. The local system's timestamp is taken into consideration by the Blockchain, causing a delay of a few seconds that is long enough for adversaries to hamper the contract. Because the miner might then select a different timestamp, this might have an impact on the results of contracts that depend on timestamps.

A Quick Attack on the Address

The Golem team found that ERC20 tokens carry a vulnerability. To purchase tokens from a contract, a hacker can construct an Ethereum wallet address with trailing zeros and then remove the trailing zeros. If the contract doesn't validate the length of the address, the Ethereum virtual machine will simply append zeros to the transaction until the sender's address is complete. For each purchase of 1000 tokens, this results in a return of 256000 tokens.

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Best practices to Ensure Smart Contract Security

Since smart contracts are just very specific programs, the main goal of developers is to ensure the accuracy and security of their code. Here are some recommended practices for ensuring smart contract security.

Watch out for Added Functionality

One of the factors contributing to the success of platforms like Ethereum and EOS is the robust functioning of smart contracts. Our blockchain specialists, however, note that security is frequently sacrificed for this functionality.

You must adhere to the best practices of the relevant blockchain networks when working with protocols that support intricate, multifunctional smart contracts. Otherwise, you run the danger of introducing critical flaws in your code.

Some networks, like Cardano and Zilliqa, assist programmers in enhancing the security of their code by imposing more constraints on smart contracts. Additionally, the extra control increases contract security but these limitations, however, limit the operation of the contract. Additionally, you can develop automatic validation tool contracts while working with these networks to gain 100 percent assurance of your smart contract safety.

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Make Sensible Programming Language Selections

If you can, use a programming language that will allow you to create smart contracts while keeping security in mind. You have almost limitless options for creating intricate, highly functional contracts thanks to widely used languages like C++ and JavaScript. The greatest threat to the safety of your smart contracts is present here.

To lower the likelihood of code flaws and errors, many blockchains create their programming languages. Even seasoned developers might make blunders when working with widely used programming languages. There are simply too many variables to take into consideration, including issues with how the language, compiler, and blockchain interact.

The Scilla language, which is used to create Zilliqa smart contracts, is an example of a less complicated programming language with a simpler semantic structure. When developing a contract, a smart contract developer will find it much simpler to prevent programming errors because of the simplicity of languages like Scilla.

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Use Development Techniques Tailored to Blockchains

Even though they fall under the category of software, smart contracts need to be developed using methods that take the characteristics of blockchain technology into account. According to our experts, compared to other software solutions, the cost of a development error in a blockchain generally (and in smart contracts in particular) is substantially higher. You cannot simply move quickly and break stuff in this field. If not, you run the risk of making numerous serious mistakes that could have been easily avoided.

For instance, the mechanisms of the majority of blockchain networks permit unexpectedly calling the code of a contract. Developers without less experience could overlook this problem and create vulnerable code.

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Use Smart Contract Security Tools

Here are a few security solutions that can lower the likelihood of security flaws in smart contracts.

SmartInspect:

Using decompilation methods for remotely deployed contracts, SmartInspect examines the deployed smart contract. It accomplishes that without the need for an API to gather raw data.

GasTap:

The GasTap tool is in charge of figuring out the upper bond required for the quantity of gas for smart contracts to avoid gas vulnerability. It makes use of the resources in a pipeline that accepts smart contracts and establishes the maximum amount of gas necessary for its operations.

SmartCheck:

It converts Solidity source code to XML format via static analysis. Xpath queries detect problematic patterns as well. It also identifies and constrains security, functional, operational, and development stage issues with Solidity code.

Gasper:

The sender of transactions or smart contracts must pay execution fees in the form of gas for each transaction. Gas is the cost to compensate miners for code execution, to be more specific. Gasper can identify overcharged typical patterns including dead code, opaque predicates, and expensive loop operations.

Solgraph

It is a security visualization tool that creates DOT graphs to keep solidity contracts under guarded control. Its key function is to identify and draw attention to potential security flaws.

Blockchain Graph Debugger

It is an EVM debugging tool used to graphically describe or display the complete program control flow.

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Conclusion

Even though blockchain and smart contracts are extremely safe and immutable, incidents like the one at Poly Network can be sobering and cause us to pause. By being cautious, we may minimize the hazards posed by this technology and maximize our gains. Make sure the aforementioned weaknesses do not compromise your smart contract security. To know more about smart contract development and ensure its security, connect with our skilled smart contract developers.