Threat Enumeration

Risk Enumeration—the process of systematically identifying and categorizing potential threat elements within a protocol. This structured enumeration allows us to clearly assess vulnerabilities and outline tailored mitigation strategies. Our framework for Risk Enumeration is built on the De-FAULT model, a streamlined categorization of core risk areas: Decentralized Issue, Flaw in Coding, Access Control, Upgradable Contract, Logic of Business, and Tampered Ratio. This model captures the critical risk elements in a comprehensive yet efficient manner, ensuring thorough coverage without overwhelming complexity.

By using this structured approach, we systematically evaluate risks from foundational business logic to smart contract vulnerabilities, aligning each identified threat with best practices for mitigation. This robust enumeration process underscores our commitment to protocol safety and integrity, creating a well-informed resource that anticipates and addresses potential security challenges in the Web3 landscape.

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Decentralized Issue

Problems arising from insufficient decentralization in the protocol's governance or control mechanisms. This includes situations where sensitive functions are not managed by decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), where authority is overly centralized in a single entity, or where essential security practices like time locks and multi-signature wallets are not implemented. Such centralization can lead to abuse of power or create single points of failure within the system.

Coding Flaw

Errors or vulnerabilities in the codebase, such as bugs, programming mistakes, or inadequate input validation. This encompasses issues like missing return values, incorrect use of inequality operators, improper documentation or comments, decimal precision errors, state variable synchronization mismatches or not using the latest values, gas-related issues, and vulnerabilities like reentrancy attacks. These flaws can be exploited to compromise the security, functionality, or performance of the protocol.

Access Control

Flaws in the protocol's access control mechanisms, including inadequate authentication or authorization checks. Such vulnerabilities can allow unauthorized users to gain access to restricted functions or sensitive data, leading to potential misuse or exploitation.

Upgradeable Contract

Risks associated with the upgradeable nature of smart contracts, particularly when best practices are not followed in proxy patterns. This includes failures such as missing initialize functions, improper handling of storage gaps, or other mistakes that can introduce vulnerabilities during contract upgrades. These issues can lead to security breaches or unauthorized modifications that affect the integrity of the protocol.

Business Logic

Vulnerabilities arising from flaws in the protocol's business logic. This involves incorrect implementation of operational rules or processes, such as missing necessary validations, or calculations that lack essential components. Such flaws can lead to unexpected behaviors, financial losses, or opportunities for exploitation by malicious actors.

Tampered Ratio

Risks involving the manipulation or tampering of critical ratios or parameters used by the protocol, such as collateralization ratios, interest rates, or price feeds from oracles. Exploiting these can give attackers undue advantages, potentially leading to financial instability within the protocol.