The security of a blockchain project is one of the key elements for its success. An important aspect to guarantee the security of a project is the audit of smart contracts. An accurate and detailed analysis of the smart contract sets in an application helps to detect and eliminate vulnerabilities. The audit also verifies the reliability of the contract interactions.
As for the smart contract audit process, it's pretty much like any kind of code testing. The steps involve testing smart contract state changes, event testing, error testing, and sender scrutiny of messages.
What to look for when choosing tools
Smart contracts, however, are simply too large and dynamic to be manually explored and monitored. You need tools to thoroughly review the code and yet prevent any kind of data breach. In some cases, even after a project gets off the ground, you need a system to continually monitor transactions and notify participants immediately if anything suspicious is discovered.
A fundamental requirement for a tool is to have an ecosystem that makes it easy to work with the smart contract throughout its entire life cycle. It allows you to create custom contracts, that is, computer code developed according to your needs. You can efficiently audit contracts and implement contracts in the live environment.
Once a smart contract is implemented, it needs to be monitored to ensure security. The tool monitors a given set of contracts in real time and creates custom alerts in case the established parameters are violated.
Let's take a look at five popular tools for smart contract auditing:
1. Truffle
A popular framework for blockchain application development, Truffle serves as a trusted development environment, testing framework, and asset pipeline for blockchains. Whether developers are looking to build on top of Ethereum, Hyperledger, Quorum, or any other supported platform, the framework can be trusted. Truffle brings the functionality needed to be an end-to-end dApp development platform.
At its core, Truffle is a Node.js platform for building, linking, and deploying smart contracts. It gives developers access to features like programmable deployment, custom deployment support, and access to external packages, binary management, and many more.
Along with built-in smart contract compilation, binding, deployment and binary management, Truffle can be used to
Programmable, extensible framework deployment and migrations
Email proof of contract
Independent network
Package Management with EthPM and NPM. Use standard ERC190
Interactive console for direct contractual communication
Configurable build pipeline backed by integration
Truffle allows developers to easily implement smart contracts and communicate with their underlying state without going into a lot of client-side programming. The framework has a useful library for smart contract auditing and iteration.
2. MythX
A powerful cloud-based service, MitoX discovers robustness vulnerabilities in Ethereum's contract code. The service uses symbolic analysis and input fuzzing to detect common security bugs. The client requires an API key to use the service.
MythX launches a full range of analysis services, including static analysis, dynamic analysis, and symbolic execution. Depending on the subscription level, the service offers options like quick scan, standard scan, and deep scan. You can use the Truffle MythX plugin to analyze smart contracts in the Truffle framework.
3. Rattle
An EVM binary static analysis framework reserves up to 60% of the retrieved bytecode instructions, shortens things and scans for vulnerabilities.
Gets the byte strings and implements flow sensitive parsing to retrieve the original control flow graph. It drives the control flow graph to an infinite SSA / log form, and improves SSA: dropping DUPs, SWAPs, PUSHs and POPs. This turns the stack machine into a much simpler interface, making it easy for human readers of smart contracts.
4. Secure
Securify a web-based smart code scanner, allow you to copy and paste code. Click 'scan now' and the tool will report problems, if any, with warnings.
The tool reports issues directly at the line of potentially vulnerable code. If you click the 'info' button, more details and examples are provided. It will show issues like transaction order affects Ether amount, unrestricted write to storage, missing input validation, unrestricted Ether flow, insecure unreliable contract call, etc. However, the web tool cannot be used offline.
5. Mithril
Using contamination analysis, concolic analysis, and control flow verification to detect a variety of security vulnerabilities in smart contracts.
A security analysis tool for EVM bytecode, it is designed to detect vulnerabilities in smart contracts developed for Ethereum, Quorum, Hedera, Vechain, Roostock, Tron, and other EVM-supported blockchains. On the MythX security analysis platform, Mythril is used in conjunction with other tools and techniques.
