Finding smart contract vulnerabilities with ConCert's property-based testing framework

In their paper, "Finding smart contract vulnerabilities with ConCert's property-based testing framework," Mikkel Milo, Eske Hoy Nielsen, Danil Annenkov, and Bas Spitters present a comprehensive approach to testing and verifying smart contracts using the ConCert Coq framework. The authors demonstrate the effectiveness of their approach by providing three detailed case studies of vulnerabilities in smart contracts: the Dexter1 token exchange, the iToken, and the ICO of Brave's BAT token. They show how property-based testing would have found these vulnerabilities and also discovered new bugs that could have led to millions of dollars stolen or frozen. The authors emphasize that their approach is not limited to these specific examples but can be applied more broadly to real-world contracts. They mention re-discovering several bugs in real-world contracts such as the $50 million "DAO attack" on Ethereum and tested reference implementations of ERC-20 and FA2 Token Standards used in several blockchains. By combining auditing, testing, and verification techniques, they provide a toolchain for producing executable code for smart contracts that are tested and verified. The ConCert framework provides a general executable model/specification of smart contract execution in the Coq proof assistant. ConCert contracts can be used to generate verified smart contracts in Tezos' LIGO and Concordium's Rust language. The authors highlight the importance of combining formal verification and property-based testing of smart contracts which is starting to be recognized by the industry. Overall, this paper presents an innovative approach for testing and verifying smart contracts that has significant implications for improving security in blockchain technology. It combines auditing techniques with formal verification methods to create a toolchain for generating secure executable code for various types of blockchain applications. This approach has already been proven effective at finding bugs in existing real-world projects such as Ethereum's DAO attack as well as reference implementations of popular token standards like ERC-20 and FA2 Token Standards used across multiple blockchains. As recognition from industry professionals continues to grow regarding the importance of combining formal verification with property-based testing when developing secure blockchain applications, this paper serves as an important resource for understanding best practices when it comes to ensuring safety within this rapidly evolving space.