Building Secure Contracts

Comprehensive smart contract security toolkit with vulnerability scanners and development guideline assistants

Comprehensive smart contract security toolkit based on Trail of Bits’ Building Secure Contracts framework. This plugin provides 11 specialized skills for smart contract security across multiple blockchain platforms.

Overview

The plugin includes two categories of skills:

• 6 Vulnerability Scanners - Platform-specific attack pattern detection
• 5 Development Guidelines Assistants - Secure development best practices

Installation

/plugin install trailofbits/skills/plugins/building-secure-contracts

Supported Blockchains

Algorand

TEAL/PyTeal smart contracts

Cairo

StarkNet contracts

Cosmos

Cosmos SDK modules

Solana

Native Rust & Anchor programs

Substrate

Substrate pallets

TON

FunC smart contracts

Vulnerability Scanners

Platform-specific vulnerability detection based on Trail of Bits’ Not So Smart Contracts repository.

Algorand Vulnerability Scanner

Skill: /algorand-vulnerability-scanner

Scans Algorand/TEAL codebases for 11 vulnerability patterns:

• Rekeying vulnerabilities
• Unchecked transaction fees
• Asset closing issues
• Group size checks
• Time-based replay attacks
• CloseRemainderTo validation
• AssetCloseTo validation
• Transaction type confusion
• Improper escrow handling
• Fee manipulation
• Lease validation issues

Use when: Auditing Algorand smart contracts, reviewing TEAL/PyTeal code, or preparing for deployment on Algorand.

Cairo Vulnerability Scanner

Skill: /cairo-vulnerability-scanner

Analyzes StarkNet/Cairo smart contracts for 6 vulnerability patterns:

• Arithmetic overflow/underflow
• Reentrancy vulnerabilities
• Uninitialized storage
• Authorization bypass
• Improper access control
• State manipulation issues

Use when: Auditing StarkNet contracts, reviewing Cairo implementations, or validating access control patterns.

Cosmos Vulnerability Scanner

Skill: /cosmos-vulnerability-scanner

Detects security issues in Cosmos SDK modules for 9 patterns:

• Undelegation time validation
• Amount validation issues
• Unbonding validation
• Rounding issues in calculations
• Delegation state manipulation
• Validator set manipulation
• Slashing bypass
• Reward distribution errors
• Token minting vulnerabilities

Use when: Building Cosmos SDK modules, reviewing blockchain logic, or auditing staking mechanisms.

Solana Vulnerability Scanner

Skill: /solana-vulnerability-scanner

Scans Solana/Anchor programs for 6 critical vulnerabilities:

• Arbitrary CPI - User-controlled program IDs in cross-program invocations
• Improper PDA Validation - Using create_program_address without canonical bump
• Missing Ownership Check - Deserializing accounts without owner validation
• Missing Signer Check - Authority operations without is_signer verification
• Sysvar Account Check - Spoofed sysvar accounts (pre-Solana 1.8.1)
• Improper Instruction Introspection - Absolute indexes allowing reuse attacks

Use when: Auditing Solana programs (native or Anchor), reviewing CPI logic, or validating PDA implementations.

Supports both native Solana programs and Anchor framework. Integrates with Trail of Bits Solana Lints when available.

Substrate Vulnerability Scanner

Skill: /substrate-vulnerability-scanner

Analyzes Substrate pallets for 7 security issues:

• BadOrigin handling
• Insufficient weight calculations
• Panics on overflow
• Unsigned transaction validation
• Storage manipulation
• Runtime upgrade issues
• Extrinsic validation bypass

Use when: Building Substrate pallets, reviewing runtime code, or auditing parachain logic.

TON Vulnerability Scanner

Skill: /ton-vulnerability-scanner

Detects vulnerabilities in TON smart contracts for 3 patterns:

• Replay protection failures
• Unprotected receiver functions
• Sender validation issues

Use when: Auditing TON smart contracts, reviewing FunC code, or validating message handling.

Development Guidelines Assistants

Based on Trail of Bits’ Development Guidelines.

Audit Prep Assistant

Skill: /audit-prep-assistant

Prepare your codebase for security reviews with a comprehensive 4-step checklist:

1. Set Review Goals - Define security objectives and areas of concern
2. Resolve Easy Issues - Run static analysis (Slither, dylint, golangci-lint) and fix low-hanging fruit
3. Ensure Accessibility - Create build instructions, freeze commits, clarify scope
4. Generate Documentation - Create flowcharts, user stories, glossaries, and inline comments

Timeline: Use this 1-2 weeks before your audit to maximize review effectiveness.

Output: Complete audit preparation package with clean static analysis, high test coverage, comprehensive documentation, and a preparation checklist.

Code Maturity Assessor

Skill: /code-maturity-assessor

Systematic code maturity evaluation using Trail of Bits’ 9-category framework:

• Arithmetic safety
• Auditing practices
• Authentication/Access controls
• Complexity management
• Decentralization
• Documentation quality
• Transaction ordering risks
• Low-level manipulation
• Testing and verification

Output: Professional maturity scorecard with evidence-based ratings (Immature/Developing/Mature/Robust) and improvement roadmap.

Guidelines Advisor

Skill: /guidelines-advisor

Comprehensive development best practices advisor covering:

• Documentation & Specifications - Generate system descriptions and architectural diagrams
• Architecture Analysis - Optimize on-chain/off-chain distribution
• Upgradeability Review - Assess upgrade patterns and delegatecall proxies
• Implementation Quality - Review functions, inheritance, events
• Common Pitfalls - Identify security anti-patterns
• Dependencies - Evaluate library usage
• Testing - Suggest test improvements

Use throughout development for architectural and implementation guidance.

Secure Workflow Guide

Skill: /secure-workflow-guide

Interactive 5-step secure development workflow:

1. Known Security Issues - Run Slither with 70+ detectors
2. Special Features - Check upgradeability, ERC conformance, token integration
3. Visual Inspection - Generate inheritance graphs, function summaries, authorization maps
4. Security Properties - Document properties, set up Echidna/Manticore
5. Manual Review - Analyze privacy, front-running, cryptography, DeFi risks

Use on every check-in or before deployment for continuous security validation.

Token Integration Analyzer

Skill: /token-integration-analyzer

Comprehensive token security analysis for both implementations and integrations:

• ERC20/ERC721 Conformity - Validate standard compliance
• Contract Composition - Assess complexity and SafeMath usage
• Owner Privileges - Review upgradeability, minting, pausability, blacklists
• 20+ Weird Token Patterns - Check for non-standard behaviors:
  • Missing return values
  • Fee-on-transfer tokens
  • Rebasing tokens
  • Double entry point tokens
  • Flash mintable tokens
  • Revert on zero-value transfers
• On-chain Analysis - Query deployed contracts for scarcity and distribution
• Integration Safety - Verify defensive patterns and safe transfer usage

Use when building tokens or integrating with external tokens.

Usage Examples

Pre-Audit Preparation Workflow

# Step 1: Run comprehensive security checks
/secure-workflow-guide

# Step 2: Evaluate overall code maturity
/code-maturity-assessor

# Step 3: Prepare audit documentation package
/audit-prep-assistant

# Step 4: Share prepared package with auditors

Platform-Specific Security Review

For a Solana project:

# Scan for Solana-specific vulnerabilities
/solana-vulnerability-scanner

# Get implementation best practices
/guidelines-advisor

# Run comprehensive security validation
/secure-workflow-guide

Token Development

# Analyze token implementation and weird patterns
/token-integration-analyzer

# Get token-specific best practices
/guidelines-advisor

# Complete security validation
/secure-workflow-guide

Continuous Security Integration

# On every check-in
/secure-workflow-guide

# Weekly maturity assessment
/code-maturity-assessor

# Before major releases
/audit-prep-assistant

Tool Integration

Many skills leverage security tools when available:

• Slither - Static analysis for Solidity (70+ detectors, visual diagrams, upgradeability checks)
• Echidna - Property-based fuzzing for Ethereum contracts
• Manticore - Symbolic execution for deep analysis
• Tealer - Static analyzer for TEAL/PyTeal (Algorand)
• Web3/Ethers - On-chain queries for deployed contracts
• dylint - Linter framework for Rust-based contracts
• golangci-lint - Comprehensive linter for Go (Cosmos)

Skills gracefully adapt when tools are unavailable, performing manual analysis instead. However, tool-assisted analysis is more thorough and faster.

Source Material

This plugin is based on Trail of Bits’ open-source security resources:

• Building Secure Contracts - Comprehensive security guidelines
• Not So Smart Contracts - Common vulnerability patterns
• Weird ERC20 - Non-standard token behaviors

Related Skills

Complement this plugin with other Trail of Bits skills:

• audit-context-building - Build deep architectural context before vulnerability hunting
• issue-writer - Transform findings into professional audit reports
• solidity-poc-builder - Build proof-of-concept exploits for Solidity vulnerabilities

Support

For questions or issues:

• Trail of Bits Office Hours - Every Tuesday
• Empire Hacking Slack - #crytic and #ethereum channels

Author

Omar Inuwa - Trail of Bits

Version: 1.0.1