Smart contracts are self-executing contracts with the terms of the agreement directly written into lines of code. They are stored and executed on a blockchain, ensuring the contract is automatically enforced when the conditions are met. The below Smart contract security guidelines refer to the measures and practices implemented to protect smart contracts from vulnerabilities, attacks, and failures.

  1. Code Quality: The first step is to review the overall quality of the code. This includes checking for code clarity, proper comments, and adherence to coding standards.
    Token Standards Compliance: Ensure that the token contract complies with the relevant standards, such as ERC20, ERC721, or ERC1155. Non-compliance can lead to interoperability issues with wallets and exchanges.
  2. Overflow and Underflow Attacks: Check for potential integer overflow and underflow vulnerabilities. These occur when arithmetic operations exceed the maximum or minimum size of the integer type.
  3. Reentrancy Attacks: Look for potential reentrancy attacks. These happen when a contract calls an external contract, which in turn calls back into the calling contract before the first call is finished.
  4. Front-Running Attacks: Check for susceptibility to front-running attacks, in which someone can see a transaction in the mempool and then issue another transaction with a higher gas price to get it mined first.
  5. Timestamp Dependence: Ensure that the contract does not rely on block. Timestamp or now for critical functionalities, as miners can manipulate them to a certain degree.
    DoS with Unexpected Revert: Check for functions that could be blocked by an unexpected revert in a called contract, leading to a Denial of Service (DoS) attack.
  6. Short Address Attack: Ensure the contract is not vulnerable to the short address attack, where an attacker sends fewer data than expected, and Solidity fills shorter addresses with zeroes.
  7. Unchecked Return Values: Ensure all external calls’ return values are appropriately checked. Failing to do so can lead to unexpected behaviour.
  8. Race Conditions: Check for potential race conditions, where the order of transactions can affect the contract’s state.
  9. Gas Limit and Loops: Ensure that loops do not have a high upper limit, which could consume all the gas and cause transactions to fail.
  10. Access Control: Review the contract’s access control mechanisms. Ensure that only authorised addresses can call sensitive functions.
  11. Upgradability and Proxy Patterns: If the contract uses upgradability or proxy patterns, ensure the implementation is secure and cannot be exploited.
  12. Randomness: If the contract uses randomness, ensure it is generated securely. Blockchain is deterministic, so generating random numbers can be tricky and potentially exploitable.
  13. Data Storage: Review how data is stored and handled. Ensure that sensitive data is not publicly accessible.
  14. Contract Interactions: Review all external contract interactions. Ensure that interactions are with trusted contracts and that potential failures are handled correctly.
  15. Event Logging: Ensure that all significant actions and state changes are logged using events. This helps with transparency and tracking.
  16. Function Visibility: Check that all functions have the correct visibility. Public and external functions can be called by anyone, so ensure that sensitive functions are marked as private or internal.
  17. Fallback Functions: Review the contract’s fallback function. Ensure it does not consume too much gas and cannot be exploited.
  18. Self-Destruct: If the contract uses self-destruct, ensure it can only be called by the appropriate parties and under the correct conditions.

E COM SECURITY SOLUTIONS’ – BLOCKCHAIN SECURITY

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