A Survey of Attacks on Ethereum Smart Contracts SoK
22 Apr 2017-Vol. 10204, pp 164-186
TL;DR: This work analyses the security vulnerabilities of Ethereum smart contracts, providing a taxonomy of common programming pitfalls which may lead to vulnerabilities, and shows a series of attacks which exploit these vulnerabilities, allowing an adversary to steal money or cause other damage.
Abstract: Smart contracts are computer programs that can be correctly executed by a network of mutually distrusting nodes, without the need of an external trusted authority. Since smart contracts handle and transfer assets of considerable value, besides their correct execution it is also crucial that their implementation is secure against attacks which aim at stealing or tampering the assets. We study this problem in Ethereum, the most well-known and used framework for smart contracts so far. We analyse the security vulnerabilities of Ethereum smart contracts, providing a taxonomy of common programming pitfalls which may lead to vulnerabilities. We show a series of attacks which exploit these vulnerabilities, allowing an adversary to steal money or cause other damage.
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TL;DR: A smart contract is a programme stored in the Ethereum blockchain by a contract‐creation transaction that developers deploy an instance of the SC and attempt to execute it in exchange for a fee, paid in Ethereum coins (Ether).
Abstract: A smart contract (SC) is a programme stored in the Ethereum blockchain by a contract‐creation transaction. SC developers deploy an instance of the SC and attempt to execute it in exchange ...
10 citations
11 Jul 2021
TL;DR: Echidna-parade as mentioned in this paper is a tool that provides pushbutton multicore fuzzing using Echidna as an underlying fuzzing engine, and automatically provides sophisticated diversification of configurations.
Abstract: Echidna is a widely used fuzzer for Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatible blockchain smart contracts that generates transaction sequences of calls to smart contracts. While Echidna is an essentially single-threaded tool, it is possible for multiple Echidna processes to communicate by use of a shared transaction sequence corpus. Echidna provides a very large variety of configuration options, since each smart contract may be best-tested by a non-default configuration, and different faults or coverage targets within a single contract may also have differing ideal configurations. This paper presents echidna-parade, a tool that provides pushbutton multicore fuzzing using Echidna as an underlying fuzzing engine, and automatically provides sophisticated diversification of configurations. Even without using multiple cores, echidna-parade can improve the effectiveness of fuzzing with Echidna, due to the advantages provided by multiple types of test configuration diversity. Using echidna-parade with multiple cores can produce significantly better results than Echidna, in less time.
10 citations
27 Jun 2020
TL;DR: Wang et al. as discussed by the authors proposed a test case generation approach, called ADF-GA (All-uses Data Flow criterion based test case generator using Genetic Algorithm), for Solidity based Ethereum smart contract programs.
Abstract: Testing is an important technique to improve the quality of Ethereum smart contract programs. However, current work on testing smart contract only focus on static problems of smart contract programs. A data flow oriented test case generation approach for dynamic testing of smart contract programs is still missing. To address this problem, this paper proposes a novel test case generation approach, called ADF-GA (All-uses Data Flow criterion based test case generation using Genetic Algorithm), for Solidity based Ethereum smart contract programs. ADF-GA aims to efficiently generate a valid set of test cases via three stages. First, the corresponding program control flow graph is constructed from the source codes. Second, the generated control flow graph is analyzed to obtain the variable information in the Solidity programs, locate the require statements, and also get the definition-use pairs to be tested. Finally, a genetic algorithm is used to generate test cases, in which an improved fitness function is proposed to calculate the definition-use pairs coverage of each test case with program instrumentation. Experimental studies are performed on several representative Solidity programs. The results show that ADF-GA can effectively generate test cases, achieve better coverage, and reduce the number of iterations in genetic algorithm.
10 citations
TL;DR: Experimental results demonstrate the feasibility of ISRchain for securing interdomain routing as a blockchain-based interdomain secure routing framework and utilize blockchain as a distributed, tamper-proof, and traceable ledger to store the distributions of Internet number resources consistently.
10 citations
TL;DR: In this article , the authors present a systematic review of security analysis tools for smart contracts and highlight some challenges and future recommendations in the field of smart contracts, including taint analysis, symbolic execution and fuzzing.
Abstract: Blockchain technology and its applications are gaining popularity day by day. It is a ground-breaking technology that allows users to communicate without the need of a trusted middleman. A smart contract (self-executable code) is deployed on the blockchain and auto executes due to a triggering condition. In a no-trust contracting environment, smart contracts can establish trust among parties. Terms and conditions embedded in smart contracts will be imposed immediately when specified criteria have been fulfilled. Due to this, the malicious assailants have a special interest in smart contracts. Blockchains are immutable means if some transaction is deployed or recorded on the blockchain, it becomes unalterable. Thus, smart contracts must be analyzed to ensure zero security vulnerabilities or flaws before deploying the same on the blockchain because a single vulnerability can lead to the loss of millions. For analyzing the security vulnerabilities of smart contracts, various analysis tools have been developed to create safe and secure smart contracts. This paper presents a systematic review on Ethereum smart contracts analysis tools. Initially, these tools are categorized into static and dynamic analysis tools. Thereafter, different sources code analysis techniques are studied such as taint analysis, symbolic execution, and fuzzing techniques. In total, 86 security analysis tools developed for Ethereum blockchain smart contract are analyzed regardless of tool type and analysis approach. Finally, the paper highlights some challenges and future recommendations in the field of Ethereum smart contracts.
10 citations
References
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01 Jan 2002TL;DR: This presentation discusses Functional Programming in HOL, which aims to provide students with an understanding of the programming language through the lens of Haskell.
Abstract: Elementary Techniques.- 1. The Basics.- 2. Functional Programming in HOL.- 3. More Functional Programming.- 4. Presenting Theories.- Logic and Sets.- 5. The Rules of the Game.- 6. Sets, Functions, and Relations.- 7. Inductively Defined Sets.- Advanced Material.- 8. More about Types.- 9. Advanced Simplification, Recursion, and Induction.- 10. Case Study: Verifying a Security Protocol.
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01 Jan 2013
TL;DR: Ethereum as mentioned in this paper is a transactional singleton machine with shared state, which can be seen as a simple application on a decentralised, but singleton, compute resource, and it provides a plurality of resources, each with a distinct state and operating code but able to interact through a message-passing framework with others.
Abstract: The blockchain paradigm when coupled with cryptographically-secured transactions has demonstrated its
utility through a number of projects, not least Bitcoin. Each such project can be seen as a simple application on a decentralised, but singleton, compute resource. We can call this paradigm a transactional singleton machine with shared-state.
Ethereum implements this paradigm in a generalised manner. Furthermore it provides a plurality of such resources, each with a distinct state and operating code but able to interact through a message-passing framework with others. We discuss its design, implementation issues, the opportunities it provides and the future hurdles we envisage.
2,755 citations
TL;DR: Protocols with application in important contracting areas, including credit, content rights management, payment systems, and contracts with bearer are discussed.
Abstract: Smart contracts combine protocols with user interfaces to formalize and secure relationships over computer networks. Objectives and principles for the design of these systems are derived from legal principles, economic theory, and theories of reliable and secure protocols. Similarities and differences between smart contracts and traditional business procedures based on written contracts, controls, and static forms are discussed. By using cryptographic and other security mechanisms, we can secure many algorithmically specifiable relationships from breach by principals, and from eavesdropping or malicious interference by third parties, up to considerations of time, user interface, and completeness of the algorithmic specification. This article discusses protocols with application in important contracting areas, including credit, content rights management, payment systems, and contracts with bearer.
1,495 citations
24 Oct 2016
TL;DR: This paper introduces a novel quantitative framework to analyse the security and performance implications of various consensus and network parameters of PoW blockchains and devise optimal adversarial strategies for double-spending and selfish mining while taking into account real world constraints.
Abstract: Proof of Work (PoW) powered blockchains currently account for more than 90% of the total market capitalization of existing digital cryptocurrencies. Although the security provisions of Bitcoin have been thoroughly analysed, the security guarantees of variant (forked) PoW blockchains (which were instantiated with different parameters) have not received much attention in the literature. This opens the question whether existing security analysis of Bitcoin's PoW applies to other implementations which have been instantiated with different consensus and/or network parameters. In this paper, we introduce a novel quantitative framework to analyse the security and performance implications of various consensus and network parameters of PoW blockchains. Based on our framework, we devise optimal adversarial strategies for double-spending and selfish mining while taking into account real world constraints such as network propagation, different block sizes, block generation intervals, information propagation mechanism, and the impact of eclipse attacks. Our framework therefore allows us to capture existing PoW-based deployments as well as PoW blockchain variants that are instantiated with different parameters, and to objectively compare the tradeoffs between their performance and security provisions.
1,258 citations
24 Oct 2016
TL;DR: This paper investigates the security of running smart contracts based on Ethereum in an open distributed network like those of cryptocurrencies, and proposes ways to enhance the operational semantics of Ethereum to make contracts less vulnerable.
Abstract: Cryptocurrencies record transactions in a decentralized data structure called a blockchain. Two of the most popular cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin and Ethereum, support the feature to encode rules or scripts for processing transactions. This feature has evolved to give practical shape to the ideas of smart contracts, or full-fledged programs that are run on blockchains. Recently, Ethereum's smart contract system has seen steady adoption, supporting tens of thousands of contracts, holding millions dollars worth of virtual coins. In this paper, we investigate the security of running smart contracts based on Ethereum in an open distributed network like those of cryptocurrencies. We introduce several new security problems in which an adversary can manipulate smart contract execution to gain profit. These bugs suggest subtle gaps in the understanding of the distributed semantics of the underlying platform. As a refinement, we propose ways to enhance the operational semantics of Ethereum to make contracts less vulnerable. For developers writing contracts for the existing Ethereum system, we build a symbolic execution tool called Oyente to find potential security bugs. Among 19, 336 existing Ethereum contracts, Oyente flags 8, 833 of them as vulnerable, including the TheDAO bug which led to a 60 million US dollar loss in June 2016. We also discuss the severity of other attacks for several case studies which have source code available and confirm the attacks (which target only our accounts) in the main Ethereum network.
1,232 citations