Smart Contract Audit
How to Audit a Smart Contract
Smart contracts are already being used to facilitate a huge range of agreements that include ICOs, electoral voting, and supply chain management, to name but a few. Given that organizations like the Ethereum Project allow developers low-cost access to their services, literally anyone can now tap into the power of smart contracts.
It is for this reason that I regard smart contracts as the most exciting area of blockchain technology implementation. However, this new technology is not without its challenges. One such issue is the need to properly audit smart contracts to ensure that there are no security issues and that all contracts are fully performance optimized.
Advantages of Smart Contract Audits
To call methods on the smart contract
To optimize the code
To run the code efficiently
To re-enforce authorization
TAINT ANALYSIS
Smart contracts are audited for parts where the chances of external code running improperly is high.
DATA VALIDATION
Input data that is used to demand functions are tested to ensure that smart contracts are safe from attack vectors.
MODEL CHECKING
Smart contracts are tested by a security model to observe whether they perform according to intended functionality.
CONTROL FLOW ANALYSIS
Code implementation is charted out to all possible paths to evaluate different states that can be achieved.
FALL BACK MECHANISMS
To do away with probable worst case scenarios, smart contracts are work-shopped along with development teams with associated fall back mechanisms.
AUDIT REPORT
A detailed audit report is compiled basis the intensity of the audit conducted. Besides key findings, the report also enlists the security fixes undertaken by the project team.