According to data, more than $3.8 billion digital assets were stolen in 2022. (Chainalysis, 2023)
With the popularization and development of blockchain technology, smart contracts have become an important application scenario in the blockchain ecosystem. Its automated nature makes them ideal for use in finance, supply chain management, IoT, and many industry fields. However, it is also because of this feature that it has a huge potential risk behind it — any mistake or error may lead to serious consequences and is difficult to modify.
Among them, DeFi is the most frequently attacked by hackers. In 2022 alone, $3.1 billion was stolen in the DeFi field. For example, cross-chain bridges, swaps, and lending platforms are all services frequented by hackers. We can also review the news that $191 million of the famous cross-chain bridge Nomad was stolen last August.
More than $3.1 billion was stolen in 2022 due to DeFi vulnerability
Therefore, smart contract audit has become very important for companies. It is a process of evaluating the security and credibility of smart contracts to ensure that the execution is in line with expectations.
The following article will introduce the Five key steps of the smart contract audit process usually includes: Functional Review, Security Assessment, Efficiency Assessment, Compliance Assessment and Report Compilation.
Step 1. Functional Review
The first step is conducting a functional review to ensure the smart contract meets the required specifications and the intended objectives. This review examines the code to ensure it has been written correctly, all the functions have been defined, and the code logic is aligned with the intended functionality.
Step 2. Security Assessment
The security assessment is a key part of the audit, mainly to check whether there are vulnerabilities in the smart contract code that hackers or malicious attackers may exploit. Evaluators use specialized tools and techniques to check smart contracts for common vulnerabilities such as buffer overflows, race conditions, and reentrancy attacks. In addition, evaluators also evaluate the security features of the contracts, such as access control mechanisms, to ensure that they are sufficiently robust against unauthorized access.
Step 3. Efficiency Evaluation
Efficiency evaluation determines the resource consumption of the contract and ensures it meets the performance requirements of the network. This phase involves analyzing the computational complexity of the contract and examining how it uses resources such as gas (Ethereum) or fees (Bitcoin). Auditors ensure contracts do not consume excessive resources and slow the blockchain network.
Step 4. Compliance Assessment
Compliance assessment ensures that smart contracts comply with relevant regulations and laws. This stage is important for contracts used in industries such as finance, healthcare, and real estate. Auditors check contracts to ensure they comply with relevant regulations, such as anti-money laundering (AML) and KYC laws.
Step 5. Report Compilation
In the final step, the auditor will compile the inspection results into a report. If there are relevant vulnerabilities, they will be marked and remind the company to modify them. Ultimately, the auditor will rate the code (generally about 4 to 5 levels) and publish it on the official platform as certification.
Smart contract audit report
FAQs
How much does a smart contract audit cost?
It depends on the complexity of your code or whether you have special needs in the inspection. Generally, the price will start from $5000.
What should I prepare for the smart contract audit?
The smart contract code, project information, related planning documents, etc. The more detailed the data is, the more perfect the inspection can be.
How long does it take to audit a smart contract?
It depends on the length and complexity of your code. But in order to fully check your code, we will need at least a week to compile the audit report.
Where can I find a qualified smart contract auditor?
If you are looking for an auditor, feel free to contact our technical experts.
AVS Consulting website: https://avsconsulting.pro/