Introduction to Smart Contract Security

Smart contracts are self-executing programs that run on blockchain networks. While they offer tremendous benefits in terms of automation and trustlessness, they also present unique security challenges. Once deployed, smart contracts are immutable and often control significant financial assets, making security vulnerabilities particularly dangerous.

Immutability

Once deployed, smart contracts cannot be modified, making security critical before deployment.

Financial Risk

Smart contracts often control significant financial assets, making them attractive targets for attackers.

Transparency

Contract code is publicly visible on the blockchain, allowing attackers to analyze for vulnerabilities.

CertifiedCryptoAudit provides comprehensive security audits for smart contracts across multiple blockchain platforms. Our audits help identify vulnerabilities, optimize gas usage, and ensure your contracts follow industry best practices before deployment.

The Audit Process

Our audit process is designed to be thorough, transparent, and efficient. We use a combination of automated tools and expert analysis to identify vulnerabilities and provide actionable recommendations.

1.Submission

Connect your wallet and submit your smart contract for audit. You can provide a contract address, GitHub repository, or upload your contract code directly.

2.Automated Analysis

Our platform runs multiple specialized tools to analyze your contract for vulnerabilities, gas optimization opportunities, and code quality issues.

3.AI-Enhanced Review

Our advanced AI analyzes the results from multiple tools, identifies patterns, and provides comprehensive recommendations.

4.Certification

Receive a blockchain-verified certificate for your audited contract, which you can share with your community to build trust.

Advanced AI Audit

Our platform offers an advanced AI-powered audit option that provides deeper analysis and more comprehensive recommendations. The AI audit:

  • Combines results from multiple specialized tools
  • Identifies complex vulnerability patterns that individual tools might miss
  • Provides detailed gas optimization recommendations
  • Analyzes code quality and suggests improvements
  • Generates comprehensive, actionable recommendations

Common Smart Contract Vulnerabilities

Smart contracts are susceptible to various types of vulnerabilities. Our audit process is designed to identify these vulnerabilities before they can be exploited.

Reentrancy

Occurs when external contract calls are allowed to make new calls to the calling contract before the first execution is complete, potentially leading to multiple withdrawals or other unexpected behavior.

Real-world example: The DAO hack of 2016, which resulted in the loss of 3.6 million ETH, exploited a reentrancy vulnerability.

Integer Overflow/Underflow

Occurs when an arithmetic operation attempts to create a numeric value that is outside the range that can be represented with a given number of bits.

Real-world example: A token contract where a user with zero balance can execute a transfer of one token, resulting in a balance of 2^256-1 due to underflow.

Access Control Vulnerabilities

Improper implementation of access controls can allow unauthorized users to execute sensitive functions.

Real-world example: The Parity multi-sig wallet bug where a user was able to take ownership of the contract and then destroy it, freezing over 500,000 ETH.

Smart Contract Security Best Practices

Following these best practices can help you write more secure smart contracts and reduce the risk of vulnerabilities.

Code Quality & Structure

  • Use a specific compiler pragma (e.g., pragma solidity 0.8.17;)
  • Keep functions small and focused on a single task
  • Use descriptive variable and function names
  • Add comprehensive comments using NatSpec format
  • Use established design patterns like Checks-Effects-Interactions

Security Measures

  • Use OpenZeppelin's battle-tested libraries when possible
  • Implement proper access control mechanisms
  • Use SafeMath for versions before Solidity 0.8.0
  • Avoid using tx.origin for authentication
  • Implement emergency stop (circuit breaker) pattern

Testing & Verification

  • Write comprehensive unit tests with high coverage
  • Perform property-based testing using tools like Echidna
  • Test on testnets before mainnet deployment
  • Verify contract code on block explorers after deployment
  • Consider formal verification for high-value contracts

Gas Optimization

  • Use calldata instead of memory for function parameters in external functions
  • Pack storage variables to use fewer storage slots
  • Use bytes instead of string when possible
  • Cache array length in for loops
  • Remove unused variables and functions

Audit Tools

Our platform uses a combination of specialized tools to provide comprehensive security analysis for your smart contracts.

Static Analysis Tools

These tools analyze the contract code without executing it to identify potential vulnerabilities.

Slither

A Solidity static analysis framework that runs a suite of vulnerability detectors, prints visual information about contract details, and provides an API to easily write custom analyses.

Detects common vulnerabilities
Provides inheritance graphs
Analyzes function call graphs
Identifies contract dependencies

Mythril

A security analysis tool for EVM bytecode that uses symbolic execution, SMT solving and taint analysis to detect various security vulnerabilities.

Detects integer overflows
Identifies reentrancy vulnerabilities
Finds access control issues
Detects transaction order dependencies

Solhint

A linting utility that provides both security and style guide validations for Solidity code.

Enforces style guide rules
Identifies security best practices
Customizable rule sets
Integrates with development workflows

Dynamic Analysis Tools

These tools execute the contract code to identify vulnerabilities that might not be apparent in static analysis.

Echidna

A fuzzing tool designed for Ethereum smart contracts. It uses property-based testing to find inputs that violate user-defined properties.

Fuzzes contract functions
Tests invariant properties
Identifies edge cases
Provides detailed test coverage

Manticore

A symbolic execution tool for analysis of smart contracts and binaries that can be used to find vulnerabilities or verify correctness.

Performs symbolic execution
Generates test cases
Provides detailed execution traces
Identifies complex vulnerabilities

Advanced AI Analysis

Our platform uses advanced AI to enhance the results from traditional tools and provide more comprehensive analysis.

AI-Enhanced Audit

Our proprietary AI system analyzes the results from multiple tools, identifies patterns, and provides comprehensive recommendations that might be missed by individual tools.

Combines results from multiple tools
Identifies complex vulnerability patterns
Provides detailed gas optimization recommendations
Analyzes code quality and suggests improvements
Generates comprehensive, actionable recommendations
Identifies potential security risks in contract interactions
Provides severity ratings for identified issues

Frequently Asked Questions

Find answers to common questions about smart contract audits and our platform.

How long does an audit typically take?

The duration of an audit depends on the complexity and size of the contract. Our automated audits provide results within minutes, while the advanced AI audit can take up to an hour for complex contracts.

What blockchains do you support?

We support smart contracts on multiple blockchains, including Ethereum, Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism, Base, Avalanche, BSC, Scroll, zkSync, Linea, Blast, Mantle, Celo, and Gnosis.

How does the certification process work?

After a successful audit, you can mint a blockchain-verified certificate NFT that contains the audit results, timestamp, and contract details. This certificate can be shared with your community to build trust.

What programming languages do you support?

We currently support Solidity, Vyper, Cairo, Move, and Rust smart contracts. Support for additional languages is coming soon.

How much does an audit cost?

Our basic automated audit is free for contracts under 1000 lines of code. The advanced AI audit and certification have tiered pricing based on contract complexity. Please contact us for custom pricing for large or complex projects.

What happens if vulnerabilities are found?

We provide detailed reports of all identified vulnerabilities, including severity ratings and recommendations for fixing them. You can then make the necessary changes and re-audit your contract.

Can I audit a contract that's already deployed?

Yes, you can audit already deployed contracts by providing the contract address. However, if vulnerabilities are found, you'll need to deploy a new version of the contract with the fixes, as deployed contracts cannot be modified.

How does the AI-enhanced audit differ from the basic audit?

The AI-enhanced audit provides deeper analysis by combining results from multiple tools, identifying complex vulnerability patterns, providing detailed gas optimization recommendations, and generating comprehensive, actionable recommendations.

Ready to Secure Your Smart Contracts?

Start your audit today and ensure your smart contracts are secure, optimized, and follow best practices.