Ethereum Contract Audit
Why audit Ethereum smart contract with Hacken?
- 500 Ethereum contracts audited
- 100B MarketCap protected
- 35 years of experience in cyber security
Trusted by the crypto community
“Strong expertise. In our opinion, this team knows everything about cybersecurity.”
Mike Miclea
Head of Marketing, Cirus Foundation
JUL 23, 2021
“They met all the deadlines, and the process was very clear.”
Semen Kaploushenko
Chief Executive Director, KUNA Exchange
MAR 23, 2021
“They’ve extended their background and clarification on the subject to ensure the project’s success.”
Ruben Guevara
Security Oriented DevOps Engineer, PAID Network
MAR 28, 2022
How are Ethereum smart contracts audited?
- Documentation check. All technical and legal inputs are collected to start the proceedings;
- Estimation of cost and timing;
- KYC (Know Your Client) collects personal information for verification and remains undisclosed;
- Payment. When you decide what method suits you – via crypto or via a bank transfer;
- Testing Process;
- Automated Analysis;
- Manual Analysis;
- Announcement. Where we post an announcement in our owned media to inform the crypto community that we’re taking care of your security;
- Report. Here you see what was done, you will receive a list of detected vulnerabilities and recommendations to prevent exploits;
- Remediation. Once the project team completes the changes recommended in the report Hacken auditors check it. There is always 1 remediation check available to ensure everything is correct;
- Certification and promotion. You receive your certificate to place on your website and we’ll promote it on CoinMarketcap, Coingecko, Hacken.io, and our owned media.
Peculiarities of EVM / Ethereum smart contract audit
Most of the so-called Ethereum smart contracts or smart contracts for EVM chains are written on Solidity. It doesn’t require adapting code for deployment to different chains so reviewing and testing process takes less than on Rust for example.
The majority of vulnerabilities found in smart contracts for the Ethereum networks are incurred by human error more often than technical specifics.
We audited more than 500 EVM smart contracts since 2017. And those companies which followed recommendations prevented exploits successfully.
We're paying attention when auditing Ethereum smart contracts:
- Gas efficiency to make it work more cost-effectively
- Reentrancy issues
- Integer overflows and underflows
- Front running opportunities
- Platform security flaws like API interaction with DApp, DDoS resistance, penetration testing, compromised website UI, etc
The computerized transactions that implement Smart Contracts constitute a revolutionary step forward in managing common contractual terms between parties that minimizes threats posed by malicious actors or associated with accidental cases without requiring the presence of a trusted intermediary. The Ethereum Project is at the forefront of enabling organizations to create and manage smart contracts as an efficient and affordable solution. However, without conducting an Ethereum smart contract audit, the parties cannot know if the contract they rely on can be trusted.
Hacken is one of the leading smart contract audit companies and a driving force securing Ethereum Smart Contracts with its state-of-the-art services that encompass the identification and management of security vulnerabilities through the analysis of the functionality of the smart contracts under audit. The smart contract auditing services are the field in which Hacken maintains a strong leadership position in the global cybersecurity arena.
Hacken Smart Contract Audit Services: how do We Help Your Company
By applying for the Hacken smart contract audit you reach 2 fundamental goals, namely, get the estimation of the security of your smart contract and see potential ways of its improvement. Our security specialists will be in contact with you during and after the smart contract audit. As a result, you will be able to check whether you have introduced the right fixes. Our smart contracts audit experts will also advise you in what direction you should strive to develop your security policy to avoid becoming vulnerable to both known and novel types of cyberattacks.
The Value you Get by Applying for Hacken Smart Contract Auditing Services
Apart from preventing huge financial damage that may be caused due to the exploitation of your vulnerabilities by hackers, upon passing the smart contracts audit by Hacken you will be able to show your customers the confirmation of your reliability. Investors are interested in working only with the projects that can secure their assets. Hacken smart contract audit is the right indicator for your community.
Our Advantages
Unlike many other security vendors, Hacken is trusted by the institutions representing a government sector. For example, our security experts closely work with the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine. We also provide regular training to our smart contract audit specialists to ensure that they are aware of all existing hacking techniques applied by malicious actors and of the ways to address them. Generally, Hacken is one of the leading smart contract auditing companies that provides high-quality security testing services at reasonable prices and applies the customer-centred approach to testing.
Smart Contract Audit Methodology Followed by Hacken
The smart contract audit service includes checks against known vulnerabilities that are relevant to the unique business logic of each smart contract. It also provides verification that the smart contract is free from logical and access control issues and an assessment of compliance with the Solidity Code Style guide.
Smart Contract Audit
A smart contract audit performed by Hacken security specialists provides for the independent estimation of the code generated to implement the smart contract’s terms. Smart contract audit is a fundamental element of the smart contract development process. Unless projects pass smart contracts audit, there is a high risk that they can face serious security issues since once a smart contract is written on the blockchain, the project’s team cannot introduce any changes. To correct any identified errors or flaws, a team will be required to replace an old smart contract with a new one. That is why a smart contract audit performed by Hacken allows clients to avoid non-required financial expenditures and spending of time.
By passing the smart contract audit process companies significantly increase the chance that the smart contract they have developed will work correctly. In terms of security, when companies apply for smart contract auditing services by Hacken they create additional barriers for malicious actors thereby preventing experiencing serious security incidents. The resources companies save by passing a smart contract audit are much greater than the smart contract audit cost. In this way, an effective smart contract audit may be referred to as a reasonable investment decision that can bring companies 10X or even much greater returns.
Ethereum Smart Contract Audit
The quality and security of the code based on which smart contracts are implemented determine the integrity of smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain. The security flaws attributable to a code are likely to cause serious damage to a project in case they are exploited by malicious actors to compromise the wallets based on Ethereum blockchain. Projects are becoming increasingly dependent on smart contracts and malicious actors actively try to use their chance. The key goals of malicious actors when exploiting smart contract weaknesses include earning money and causing reputational damage to the targeted projects. The Ethereum smart contract audit performed by Hacken will make your project a very difficult target for malicious actors and it’s very likely that they will not even try to attack you due to the high resources required to compromise the security of your smart contract.
The quality of a smart contract audit heavily depends on whether a smart contract on the Ethereum blockchain has a complete and clear technical specification and whether the documentation of the deployment process has taken place.
The smart contract audit carried out by Hacken security specialists follows the same mechanics as the mechanics of other code audits. Unless full and detailed documentation is at specialists’ disposal, they may be required to contribute additional efforts to ensure that the same level of assurance is provided when comparing to the smart contract audit of a project that has been fully documented. The process of the smart contract audit by Hacken follows the stages of the development of a test suite to validate the behaviour of a smart contract against its specifications and verify events, state changes, and error paths.
Ethereum Smart Contract Security Audit
Smart contract audits performed by Hacken experts are focused on the detection of security issues within the code under test that may be exploited by black hat hackers or simply accidentally exercised thereby causing unexpected operational challenges for a project. The smart contracts audit by Hacken assesses the system dynamics to detect both existing and potential flaws attributable to a code. At the same time, one of the main goals of the smart contract audit by Hacken is to identify opportunities for projects to improve their codes.
Upon finishing an Ethereum smart contract audit, our security specialists will provide a client with a detailed report containing all detected vulnerabilities and will also share their recommendations on how to mitigate the scope of potential security risks or even fully eliminate them. Also, our security specialists determine the level of severity of each vulnerability identified during an Ethereum smart contract audit so that clients can clearly realize what security flaws need to be fixed immediately.
The list of the typical attack vectors investigated by Hacken security engineers during the security audit includes:
- Replay attacks: valid data transmissions recorded by malicious actors and repeated to perform fraudulent activities.
- Reentrancy attacks: the exploitation of external calls to untrusted contracts for the purpose of introducing unexpected changes to information flows thereby affecting them.
- Overflow and underflow conditions leading to the propagation of unexpected data values.
- Reordering attacks: the change of transactional data by a third party during the transaction execution. The results of this attack at the phase of transaction completion are likely to be unexpected.
- Short address attacks: less data than could be expected have been received by a contract. The default data are used to fill the missing expected transactional data with unexpected outcomes.
FAQ
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What benefits does a company get by passing an Ethereum contract audit?
Ethereum contract audit allows a company to detect and then eliminate vulnerabilities in a smart contract by exploiting which attackers can cause serious damage to this company and its clients. The passed audit will also serve as a confirmation of the company’s reliability for potential partners and investors. -
How can Hacken confirm its strong ethical status as an Ethereum smart contract auditor?
Hacken employs certified security testing specialists and provides regular training to them. The fact that leading market players in their respective fields cooperate with Hacken as well as our cooperation with government bodies such as the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine confirm our strong ethical status and professionalism. -
What issues can be identified during Ethereum contract audit?
When performing Ethereum smart contract audits our specialists look for known vulnerabilities and logical and access control issues. The exploitation of these issues by malicious actors may cause serious financial damage to a company that failed to apply for Ethereum contract audit in time. -
What attack vectors do Hacken security specialists investigate during the Ethereum smart contract audit?
Hacken security specialists investigate typical attack vectors including replay attacks, short address attacks, reentrancy attacks, reordering attacks, and try to identify overflow and underflow conditions that can lead to the propagation of unexpected data values. -
How much does it cost to audit an Ethereum smart contract?
The cost of smart contract audit services varies among providers and, generally, ranges between $5K and $30K for small and medium-sized projects. For large projects, the cost of a smart contract audit may reach $500K or even more. The cost of a smart contract audit is directly dependent on the code complexity and the agreed scope of work. The other factors influencing the price include the level of urgency, the size of a smart contract (how many lines of code there are), the number of engineering hours required to complete the process, the availability of documentation related to the project, and the reputation of an auditor. The price of a smart contract audit is specified for each client on an individual basis. Projects may also decide to apply for smart contract audit services provided by independent specialists (freelancers). In this case, the cost of a smart contract audit may be lower than the one offered by professional vendors, but the risk that critical bugs may be overlooked is much higher. The cost of a smart contract audit performed by Hacken experts typically ranges between $10K and $30K. This cost also covers 1 remediation check. Clients may pay in crypto or in fiat via a bank transfer. Let’s compare the cost of a smart contract audit with the cost of a security breach caused by the exploitation of flaws in smart contracts. For example, in 2021, 80% of all incidents (145 incidents) affecting Decentralized applications were related to smart contracts while the total losses equaled $6.9B. Thus, the average cost of an incident related to smart contracts was $47M. Thus, even when the cost of a smart contract audit is $500K, the ROI of this activity is almost 100X. -
How long does a smart contract audit take?
The smart contract audit process (initial audit), on average, takes between 2 and 14 days, depending on the complexity of the project, smart contract size, and urgency. For large projects or protocols, the audit may take up to 1 month. When the initial audit is completed, the client gets recommendations on what fixes to introduce. The duration of fixing depends on the client. After that, the remediation check takes place (generally, remediation takes 1 day in case a client has correctly introduced all recommended fixes). -
Why smart contract audit is important?
Smart contracts have irreversible nature: once deployed, they cannot be altered. Smart contracts audit allows a project to find security vulnerabilities in the code that have been left unnoticed by developers. Professional auditors have deep expertise in working with the code and, thus, can see flaws in the lines of code that may seem to be fully secure. A smart contract audit allows a project to eliminate flaws that would be exploited by malicious actors to perform unauthorized activities such as minting tokens. As a result of a smart contract audit, the auditor provides a client with a report specifying all detected vulnerabilities and their severity level. Thus, a client can prioritize eliminating critical and high-severity issues. Generally, a smart contract audit serves as the confirmation of the project’s reliability for investors and potential partners and generally allows a project to position itself as a reputable player. -
What is a smart contract auditor?
It's a technical specialist skilled in blockchain development able to:- - Perform smart contract audits written in Rust programming language;
- - Communicate with clients regarding audit findings;
- - Implement internal tools for simplifying the audit process;
- - Analyze hacks;
- - Analyze business logic;
- - Identify vulnerabilities, design, and architectural flaws;
- - Improve quality in order to avoid potential risks;
- - Write clear and concise reports and action steps for developers;
- - Interact with developers and key stakeholders when identifying and handling security issues.
