Blockchain Security Testing

The blockchain technology has gained popularity over time and is now a hot topic. It provides the underlying technology for cryptocurrencies as well as a wide range of other applications. The greatest significant influence has been made by successful blockchain technology implementations in the banking and finance, healthcare, food safety, and gaming industries. Due to the widespread adoption of blockchain technology, it is necessary to talk about blockchain security audit.

What exactly is blockchain, then? For both individuals and businesses, blockchain allows peer-to-peer distributed ledger technology, which streamlines the process of recording transactions and tracking assets.

No one can claim that blockchain is immune against hacking because it is a software. In fact, there have been countless incidents in the previous two years where a number of cryptocurrency trading platforms have fallen victim to severe cyberattacks.

Despite the fact that the blockchain system addresses data integrity protection, this does not indicate that the system is impervious to attacks. What’s more intriguing is how difficult it is to protect the blockchain against attacks. Because of this, the idea of conducting a blockchain security audit is becoming more popular among businesses and industries using blockchain as software.

Phase 1

Specification

In order to understand more about the app's architecture, design, and development process, the audit team will examine all of the specifications and other related documents.

The audit team won't know what the code is intended to achieve or whether it functions properly if they don't have access to this information. Since the project requirements will serve as the basis for the audit itself, the first thing you should do before starting such an audit of the security contract is to ensure that they are all taken into account.

Make sure that everybody is in agreement when the code freeze will happen. When the code is complete and the developers have verified that there are no bugs, this is the point. To ensure that everyone is on the same page regarding the code that is subject to the audit and that any future changes are outside the scope of the audit, a final commit hash will be provided in the specs.

Phase 2

Testing

The best and simplest way to find bugs is through testing. These tests can be divided into two categories: unit testing, which is focused on certain functions, and integration testing, which is more expansive in terms of scope and amount of code. By running all of these tests, you eliminate all of the issues that are obvious and increase the effectiveness of the audit. Additionally, the tests will ensure that there is clear agreement among all parties regarding how the project is to operate and what its functionalities should be, minimising confusion during the audit itself. The auditing team will typically run a comprehensive set of tests. If they notice a high number of failed tests, they may advise temporarily pausing the audit if significant changes to the code base are required.

Make sure to look at the line coverage, which will show you how much code the tests have covered. The more features that have been tested and the more code that has been covered, the fewer unforeseen issues and vulnerabilities there will be. Line coverage should typically be between 85 and 90%. The project team should be alerted as soon as possible if this figure drops below 75% so that more testing can be done before distribution.

Phase 3

Automated Testing

Automated tools will be required to develop the safest possible code for software that regulates financial assets. These instruments can be used to identify the inputs that cause each component of the programme to operate. This minimizes the audit turnaround time and frees up the human auditors to concentrate on more recent and complicated problems by making it considerably simpler for the auditing team to identify typical roadblocks.

Phase 4

Manual Testing

The developer's objectives won't be understood by the automated tools. There will be instances where software that is absolutely sound does not perform in the manner in which the developer had intended. Because of this, manual testing is also essential. After reviewing all of the specifications, a quality auditing team will decide whether everything is operating as intended. If it isn't, they'll let the development team know and offer suggestions for how to fix the problems

Phase 5

Providing You With a Report

The internal team or the vendor conducting the audit will give you a comprehensive report on the findings and the work that has been done, once the audit has been finished. The audit team will recommend the necessary patches, and the development team will need to address all of the issues found. In fact, it is advisable to perform a second audit to confirm that all fixes have been applied and that no vulnerabilities have been identified