t3rn Security Audit 1 – Halborn

Jacob Kowalewski
April 10, 2024

In blockchain the role of comprehensive and rigorous smart contract audits cannot be overstated. The recent security assessment conducted by Halborn on t3rn's smart contract codebase is a testament to the critical role of security audits in the blockchain ecosystem. This audit, carried out across the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024, delved deep into the fabric of t3rn's smart contracts, offering a nuanced understanding of the security posture of t3rn smart contracts.

About Halborn

Halborn is an elite cybersecurity firm specializing in blockchain and smart contract security, renowned for its comprehensive security solutions tailored to the unique needs of the blockchain industry. 

Founded by a team of seasoned cybersecurity experts and blockchain enthusiasts, Halborn has rapidly established itself as a trusted partner for leading blockchain projects, DeFi platforms, and cryptocurrency companies seeking to fortify their systems against evolving threats. With a track record that boasts meticulous audits for high-profile clients such as Polygon, Solana, Avalanche and many more, their expertise spans vulnerability assessments, penetration testing, and smart contract audits, ensuring their clients' digital assets and infrastructures are safeguarded against the most sophisticated attacks. 

Halborn's prominence in the industry is underscored by their role in identifying and mitigating critical vulnerabilities in major blockchain projects, contributing to the security and integrity of the blockchain ecosystem at large. 

How Halborn audited t3rn

The scope of Halborn's audit, as detailed in their comprehensive report, was meticulously defined to encompass the smart contracts deployed to settlement layers. This precision in scoping ensures a targeted and efficient audit process, allowing Halborn's security experts to focus their efforts on the most relevant and critical aspects of t3rn's codebase.

Halborn's approach to the audit was multifaceted, employing a blend of manual and automated testing techniques to achieve a balance between depth and breadth of coverage. This dual approach leverages the strengths of both methodologies--manual testing's nuanced understanding of complex vulnerabilities and automated testing's efficiency and coverage. Halborn utilized tools such as solgraph for mapping out contract functionalities and relationships, alongside static analysis tools like MythX and Slither, to unearth potential security issues.

One of the most crucial aspects of Halborn's methodology lies in its risk assessment framework, which is inspired by the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS). This framework evaluates vulnerabilities based on exploitability, impact, and a severity coefficient, providing a comprehensive and nuanced understanding of each identified risk. By categorizing vulnerabilities based on their exploitability and potential impact, Halborn offers actionable insights that are crucial for prioritizing remediation efforts. 

The audit's scope extended to a select set of smart contracts, including critical components like VerifierProof and various token contracts. This targeted selection underscores the audit's focus on the most integral parts of t3rn's infrastructure, highlighting the importance of securing the core mechanisms that underpin t3rn's functionality.

Crucially, Halborn's audit also delineates out-of-scope items, such as third-party libraries and dependencies, and economic attacks. This delineation ensures a focused audit that zeroes in on the most pertinent and controllable aspects of t3rn's smart contract environment. By clearly defining the boundaries of the audit, Halborn ensures that the assessment is both thorough and relevant, offering insights that are directly applicable to enhancing the security of t3rn's smart contracts.

In conclusion, Halborn's audit of t3rn's codebase exemplifies the rigorous and comprehensive approach necessary for securing the complex and dynamic landscape of blockchain technology. It is through such meticulous assessments that we can continue to build a more secure and resilient blockchain ecosystem, fostering innovation and adoption across various sectors.

About t3rn

t3rn has been created to offer a fresh approach to the problem of blockchain interoperability, the ability for blockchains to communicate and interact with one another. t3rn offers fast, secure and cost-efficient swapping, optimizing cross-chain executions by leveraging the modular layers of the t3rn stack for storage, validation, settlement and consensus.

t3rn is the modular interoperability layer, offering superior swapping for users and powerful modularity for builders.

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