BLOCKCHAIN SECURITY
--
1. What Is Blockchain Security?
· You (a “node”) have a file of transactions on your computer (a “ledger”). Two government accountants (let’s call them “miners”) have the same file on theirs (so it’s “distributed”). As you make a transaction, your computer sends an e-mail to each accountant to inform them.
· Each accountant rushes to be the first to check whether you can afford it (and be paid their salary “Bitcoins”). The first to check and validate hits “REPLY ALL”, attaching their logic for verifying the transaction (“proof of work”). If the other accountant agrees, everyone updates their file…
· This concept is enabled by “Blockchain” technology.
2. What Are Uses Of A Blockchain?
· Blockchain helps in the verification and traceability of multistep transactions needing verification and traceability. It can provide secure transactions, reduce compliance costs, and speed up data transfer processing. Blockchain technology can help contract management and audit the origin of a product.
· Blockchain technology can be used to create a permanent, public, transparent ledger system for compiling data on sales, tracking digital use and payments to content creators, such as wireless users or musicians.
3. What Are The Features Of Blockchain?
List of Top Blockchain Features
· Immutability. There are some exciting blockchain features but among them “Immutability” is undoubtedly one of the key features of blockchain technology. …
· Decentralized. …
· Enhanced Security. …
· Distributed Ledgers. …
· Consensus. …
· Faster Settlement.
4. What Are Advantages & Disadvantages Of A Blockchain Technology?
· The main advantages of the Blockchain technology are decentralized network, transparency, trusty chain, unalterable and indestructible technology. In turn, the main disadvantages of the Blockchain are the high energy dependence, the difficult process of integration and the implementation’s high costs.
5.How Does a Transaction Work in Blockchain?
6. What is Blockchain penetration testing?
· Blockchain penetration testing is a security assessment process done by ethical hackers or security professionals to test the security strength of the blockchain-based solution or application.
· The main aim of blockchain penetration testing is to uncover vulnerabilities and security loopholes and identify misconfiguration errors in the solution. By performing Blockchain penetration testing, organizations get insights on the overall security posture of their blockchain security and also allow them to fix the potential weaknesses for their blockchain-based solutions or applications.
7 .How to do Blockchain Penetration Testing?
· To make it easy to understand, we’ve divided the Blockchain penetration testing into the following 3 phases:
· Phase 1: Information Gathering and Threat Modeling
In this phase, you can understand and analyze the business and functional requirements.
This phase includes:
Understanding Blockchain architecture
Finding threat entry points within the organization
Gathering of publicly available data on potential exploits
Evaluate Smart Contract Business Logic
Setting objectives for conducting security testing
Full test strategy designing
Checking Compliance readiness
Setting up the testing environment
Creation of test data
· Phase 2: Testing/Discovery
In this phase, you can use the data acquired in the first phase to play out the active testing of your blockchain to decide its development level estimated against best practices and industry guidelines.
This phase includes:
· API Security Testing
Functional Testing
Automatic and Manual Blockchain Security Analysis
Blockchain Static and Dynamic Testing
Network Vulnerability Assessment
Application Vulnerability Assessment
Blockchain Integrity Assessment
Documenting Testing Discoveries
· Phase 3: Exploitation
In this phase, the objective is to use any weaknesses or security loopholes found in the Discovery stage. This is frequently done manually to get rid of false positives. The exploitation phase also involves the exfiltration of data from the target and looking after perseverance.
This phase includes:
Verifying Security Weaknesses and Vulnerabilities
Exploiting Security Weaknesses and Vulnerabilities
Network Penetration Testing
Web Application Penetration Testing
Test against Social Engineering Attacks
Review and Document Discoveries
8. What are the Blockchain Security Testing tools?
· SWC-registry — Smart contract weakness classification and test cases.
· MythX — It is a smart contract security analysis API that supports Ethereum, Quorum, Vechain, Roostock, Tron, and other EVM-compatible blockchains.
· Echidna — It is a Haskell program designed for fuzzing/property-based testing of Ethereum smarts contracts.
· Manticore — It is a symbolic execution tool for the analysis of smart contracts and binaries.
· Oyente — A static analysis tool for smart contract security.
· Securify 2.0 — Securify 2.0 is a security scanner for Ethereum smart contracts.
· SmartCheck — Static smart contract security analyzer.
· Octopus — It is a security analysis framework for the WebAssembly module and blockchain smart contract.
· Surya — Surya is a utility tool for smart contract systems.
· Solgraph — Generates a DOT graph that visualizes the function control flow of a Solidity contract and highlights potential security vulnerabilities.
· Solidity security blog — Contains a comprehensive list of crypto-related hacks, bugs, vulnerabilities, and preventative measures.
· Awesome Buggy ERC20 Tokens — A collection of vulnerabilities in ERC20 smart contracts with tokens affected
9. Conclusion
· Blockchain offers multiple security measures for the solutions that are built on it. However, due to lack of governance and exploitable vulnerabilities makes it not immune to cyber-attacks. Therefore, performing a Blockchain security audit or penetration testing becomes important for your business. The sooner you identify blockchain security loopholes the sooner you can fix them and protect your blockchain solutions from hackers.
