The blockchain sector, usually lauded for its solid security layers, was hit by a harsh realty check, in 2024 the funds stolen increased by approximately 21.07% to $2.2 billion.
I this article I will give a quick advices on how to prevent that.
To give a quick definition, smart contracts are instructions deployed on a blockchain that are fully immutable. The world of blockchain is really dangerous for bugs, especially for smart contracts. To minimize the risk of introducing bugs or vulnerabilities that may cause significant financial loss, it's crucial to:
- Achieve 100% code coverage.
- Follow best smart contract development practices.
- Audit contracts with automatic tools.
- Have your contracts audited by a strong company in the domain.
Here’s a list of automatic audit tools that you can use:
1. Slither: Static Analysis for Solidity & Vyper
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Slither is a Solidity & Vyper static analysis framework written in Python3. It runs a suite of vulnerability detectors, prints visual information about contract details, and provides an API to easily write custom analyses. Slither enables developers to find vulnerabilities, enhance their code comprehension, and quickly prototype custom analyses.
- Features
- Usage
- How to install
- Detectors
- Printers
- Tools
- API Documentation
- Getting Help
- FAQ
- License
- Publications
Features
- Detects vulnerable Solidity code with low false positives (see the list of trophies)
- Identifies where the error condition occurs in the source code
- Easily integrates into continuous integration and Hardhat/Foundry builds
- Built-in 'printers' quickly report crucial contract information
- Detector API to write custom analyses in Python
- Ability to analyze contracts…
Slither is an open-source static analysis tool designed to detect vulnerabilities in Solidity and Vyper smart contracts. It scans code for known security issues, including reentrancy attacks, boolean equality flaws, and unused return values.
Advantages
- Comprehensive Detection – Comes with 92 built-in detectors and supports custom detectors, allowing developers to tailor security analysis to specific vulnerabilities.
- Inheritance Graph – Visualizes the contract’s inheritance structure, making it easier for auditors to understand complex smart contract systems.
- Call Graph – Maps out function interactions within a contract, providing valuable insights into its operational flow.
- Fast Execution – Slither is lightweight and runs quickly compared to many other security analysis tools.
Disadvantages
- Limited to Solidity & Vyper – Does not support other blockchain programming languages.
- False Positives – May flag non-issues, requiring manual verification of detected vulnerabilities.
2. Mythril: Smart Contract Security Analyzer
Consensys
/
mythril
Mythril is a symbolic-execution-based securty analysis tool for EVM bytecode. It detects security vulnerabilities in smart contracts built for Ethereum and other EVM-compatible blockchains.
Mythril
Mythril is a symbolic-execution-based security analysis tool for EVM bytecode. It detects security vulnerabilities in smart contracts built for Ethereum and other EVM-compatible blockchains.
Whether you want to contribute, need support, or want to learn what we have cooking for the future, you can checkout diligence-mythx channel in ConsenSys Discord server.
Installation and setup
Get it with Docker:
$ docker pull mythril/myth
Install from Pypi (Python 3.7-3.10):
$ pip3 install mythril
Use it via pre-commit hook (replace $GIT_TAG with real tag):
- repo: https://github.com/Consensys/mythril
rev: $GIT_TAG
hooks:
- id: mythril
Additionally, set args: [disassemble] or args: [read-storage] to use a different command than analyze.
See the docs for more detailed instructions.
Usage
Run:
$ myth analyze <solidity-file>
Or:
$ myth analyze -a <contract-address>
Specify the maximum number of transactions to explore with -t <number>. You can also set a timeout with…
Mythril is a free and open-source security tool designed to analyze EVM bytecode. It leverages symbolic execution to detect a wide range of smart contract vulnerabilities.
Advantages
- Multi-Blockchain Support – Compatible with Ethereum, Hedera, Quorum, VeChain, RSK, Tron, and other EVM-based blockchains.
Disadvantages
- Not Customizable – Users cannot create or modify their own security detectors.
3. MythX: Advanced Smart Contract Security Analyzer
A PythX-driven CLI for MythX
This package aims to provide a simple to use command line interface for the MythX smart contract security analysis API. It's main purpose is to demonstrate how advanced features can be implemented using the PythX Python language bindings for MythX to simplify API interaction.
What is MythX?
MythX is a security analysis API that allows anyone to create purpose-built security tools for smart contract developers. Tools built on MythX integrate seamlessly into the development environments and continuous integration pipelines used throughout the Ethereum ecosystem.
Usage
$ mythx
Usage: mythx [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...
Your CLI for interacting with https://mythx.io/
Options:
--debug Provide additional debug output
--api-key TEXT Your MythX API key from the dashboard
--username TEXT Your MythX account's username
--password TEXT Your MythX account's password
--format [simple|json|json-pretty|table]
The format to display the results in
--ci Return exit code 1 if high-severity issue is
found
-y,…MythX is the paid, enhanced version of Mythril, designed for in-depth security analysis of EVM bytecode.
Advantages
- Comprehensive Analysis – Utilizes static analysis, dynamic analysis, and symbolic execution for thorough vulnerability detection.
- User-Friendly Interface – Offers an intuitive experience with easily accessible security reports on the official MythX website.
There are also Securify2 and Manticore, but they are not actively maintained.
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