How well do you know your smart contracts’ health? This article highlights the top five platforms that DeFi developers or security experts can leverage to conduct smart contract audits.
Smart contract exploits have in the past few years resulted in significant loss of funds within the DeFi market. According to the latest crypto losses report (PDF) by Immunefi, a total of $1.4 billion has been lost to rugpulls and hacks since the beginning of 2024. To make matters worse, it seems that a good number of experienced Web2 hackers are now shifting focus to DeFi, targeting smart contract vulnerabilities.
The next section of this article will highlight the top five platforms that DeFi developers or security experts can leverage to conduct smart contract audits. This type of audit typically involves a thorough examination of smart contracts’ code to identify flaws, errors or malicious components that would expose a DeFi protocol to malicious attackers.
- Trugard
This leading cybersecurity platform is a product of Trugard Labs; it is specifically designed to provide robust tools for risk awareness and smart contract security. At the core, Trugard’s Web3 security platform operates through a GraphQL-powered API which is host to a suite of independent detection capabilities on different data sets.
This smart contract security suite includes a source code analyzer dubbed Xcalibur which identifies different types of malicious activity in DeFi. In the latest update, this detection suite revealed that malicious boolean checks (transfers) were the most detected threat in August 2024, with over 6300 incidents on the Base blockchain alone.
Trugard’s detection suite also features bytecode analysis and reverse engineering functions. Bytecode analysis is particularly important in smart contract audits given there have been several instances where hackers exploited bytecode vulnerabilities and got away with millions, including Curve’s $52 million exploit in 2023.
- CertiK
CertiK is another Web3 platform that specializes in smart contract audits. To date, the firm has audited over 5200 DeFi projects, uncovering over 78000 security audit findings. Some of the notable Web3 projects that have tapped CertiK’s smart contract audit services in the past include The Sandbox, Ton and Polygon.
What stands out about CertiK’s approach to smart contract audit is a combination of automated AI-powered reviews, manual reviews and formal verification techniques that are based on a mathematical approach to ensure that audited contracts are functioning as per the custom function specifications.
CertiK also provides comprehensive smart contract audit reports which not only cover the details of identified vulnerabilities but also recommendations from the team’s Web3 security experts.
- Cyberscan
This Web3 platform is part of Cyberscope’s security suite which includes other tools such as safescan, similarityscan and signiaturescan. The Cyberscan Web3 security platform effortlessly allows anyone to audit smart contracts regardless of whether they are just starting out or experienced developers in the DeFi realm.
All that is required is for one to paste a specific address, after which cyberscan generates a detailed security report. Some of the contents of this report include important information such as potential code resemblance with other DeFi contracts, audit and KYC attachments, contract ownership and the proxies associated with a particular smart contract.
It is also worth noting that the other Web3 security tools offered by Cyberscope also operate in a seamless fashion. The safescan can run background checks and examine all transactions associated with a smart contract address; similarityscan audits the uniqueness of DeFi protocols while the signaturescan is specifically tailored to assist DeFi users to proactively identify malicious activities.
- ZepplinOS
Built on the Ethereum blockchain, ZepplinOS is an open-source platform that allows DeFi innovators to develop, deploy and run upgradeable smart contracts. This Web3 development platform also features smart contract security tools, including the ZepplinOS SDK which is a developer kit designed for building and testing the security of smart contract codes before deploying them on the Ethereum blockchain.
Zeppelin OS also conducts independent smart contract audits for DeFi protocols. The most recent one was an audit of the 1inch cross-chain protocol; some of the key components of the security reports by Zeppelin OS include a system overview, security model trust assumptions and general recommendations.
Other notable DeFi ecosystems that have used Zeppelin’s smart contract audit services include zkSync (16 audits), optimism (5 audits), compound (44 audits) and AAVE (3 audits).
- Quanstamp
This Web3 security company is the developer behind Quantstamp, a pioneer smart contract auditing protocol. While the protocol was designed to specifically address smart contract security issues on the Ethereum blockchain, Quantstamp’s smart contract security services now span across multiple blockchain environments, including Solana, Avalanche, Cardano, Hedera Hashgraph and Flow.
The two main types of smart contract audits that the company provides are; Web3-focused infrastructure audits where they leverage both automated and manual assessment techniques to reduce the risk of configuration errors or external attacks. Quantstamp also offers economic exploit analysis to mitigate hacks associated with flash loans or other types of smart contract exploits that pose a threat to tokenomics.
To date, the company has audited over 750 projects, publishing a total of 283 reports that are publicly accessible.
Conclusion
As DeFi continues to become popular, now worth $112 billion in total value locked (TVL), it is no secret that more hackers will also try their luck in this burgeoning sector. Taking proactive steps such as smart contract audits is one of the ways that developers and other DeFi users can avoid falling into the pitfalls set by malicious players. The platforms highlighted in this article are a good starting point for any stakeholder looking to audit or enhance the security of their smart contracts.
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