Yes, Bitcoin is the most popular cryptocurrency across the globe. But, Ethereum is nothing less and is the 2nd largest crypto just after Bitcoin. The smart contracts were once almost non-existent but are raging at present. Smart contracts were introduced by Ethereum. And still, Ethereum is the most advanced platform for smart contract processing and coding. A few days back, Ethereum 2.0 was launched as well.
Smart contract technology comes with challenges, and therefore, the smart contracts need to be properly audited. For auditing an Ethereum smart contract, keep up with this article.
What is an Ethereum Smart Contract?
Smart contracts refer to a kind of Ethereum account. It means that the Ethereum smart contract has a balance, and it can send transactions across the network. But, no individual controls it. Instead, they are being deployed to a network, and they function like a computer program.
By submitting the transactions that potentially execute a task given on a smart contract, the user accounts can have interactions with the smart contract. Just like a regular contract, a set of rules is defined by smart contracts, and the rules are enforced automatically through the code.
The need for smart contract audit:
Ethereum allows the developers to access their services at a low cost, and the smart contract’s power can be easily tapped into. And for this particular reason, smart contracts are considered to be the most exciting area for the implementation of blockchain technology.
But the truth is that this new-gen technology also comes with various challenges. For ensuring the maximum risk assessment, the smart contracts need to be properly audited. Also, auditing makes sure that there exist no security errors for tampering with its functionality and performance. Some of the popular vulnerabilities that have troubled the developers are front-running timestamp dependence, DoS attacks, insufficient gas errors, reentrancy, and a lot more.
All of these mentioned vulnerabilities have resulted in some of the biggest hacks in cryptocurrency history. In short, you need to be cautious about cryptocurrency.
Ethereum smart contract audit does not only prevent any future hacks but also offers you recommendations on how you can make your code better and how you can optimize the performance of the smart contract.
The functionality of Ethereum Smart Contract Audit:
When you are talking about Ethereum smart contract auditing, there is no massive difference between its audit and the audit of any other decentralized application. The audit must be performed in a way that all the possible scenarios of testing are encompassed by it, and each of the potential bugs is observed.
For understanding the ways to audit an Ethereum Smart contract, follow the below stated steps.
Familiarization of project:
Before you dig deep into coding, the auditors need to have a conversation with the development team to understand the intended behavior and underlying architecture of the blockchain and Ethereum smart contract. Detailed documentation and whitepapers are some helpful elements in this stage.
Code review:
In this stage, developers will have to closely look into coding for a wholesome understanding. All these may include the libraries and designs used by the developers. Also, the test coverage needs to be checked and the intention of the project in terms of functioning.
Automated analysis:
This stage is concerned with some business logic. Dynamic analysis tools like Manticore, MyThrill, Hyperledger Caliper, and others are put to use by the auditors for conducting automated assessments. Initially, the bugs are identified and are considered to be a critical step for the application.
Functional analysis/ manual analysis:
False positives are sometimes reported by automated analysis. Therefore, it is always a good practice to review the code annually. Also, guidelines like code structure, commenting code, replicated code avoidance, and naming variables are applied in this stage.
Known Vulnerability analysis:
For a “smart” audit, this is the most indispensable step. Checking the vulnerabilities is important, and therefore, it is necessary to test each of them separately. Some of the popular vulnerabilities are- gas limit problems, timestamp dependencies, reentrancy, and a lot more.
Initial audit report:
After all the above-mentioned steps are completed, the auditors need to combine the recommendations and findings inside a report so that the client can review them.
Code fixes:
After the 1st audit report, the essential changes and fixes are made by the developers, and then it is turned to the auditors again for the final review. You can get in touch with an experienced Ethereum smart contract development company for additional code fixtures.
Final audit report:
Once all the fixes are completed, all the analysis and details are combined by the auditors into a report, and it is submitted to the client finally.
Conclusion:
Being a highly popular platform, Ethereum is undoubtedly on the malicious entities’ radar. Several scams and attacks have taken place in history, and it has taught us that nothing is more destructive than the deployment of an unaudited code.
The scale of loss that can take place because of the smallest backdoor vulnerability on a smart contract can never be fathomed by anyone. So, before launching your smart contract, opt for reliable smart contract auditing services and get it correctly audited.
