Security Review Skill

Comprehensive security analysis for Compact smart contracts on the Midnight Network.

When to Use

This skill activates for queries about:

• •Security vulnerabilities in Compact contracts
• •Privacy and disclosure issues
• •Access control verification
• •ZK-specific attack patterns
• •Audit and security review

Trigger words: security, vulnerability, audit, disclosure, access control, privacy leak, attack vector

Quick Reference

Security Checklist

Common Vulnerabilities

// ❌ Missing access control
export circuit withdraw(amount: Uint<64>): [] {
    balance.decrement(amount);  // Anyone can call!
}

// ✅ With access control
export circuit withdraw(amount: Uint<64>): [] {
    const caller = get_caller_secret();
    assert hash(caller) == owner_hash.read();
    balance.decrement(amount);
}

// ❌ Disclosure violation
export circuit get_balance(): Uint<64> {
    return balance.read();  // Missing disclose!
}

// ✅ Explicit disclosure
export circuit get_balance(): Uint<64> {
    return disclose(balance.read());
}

ZK Attack Vectors

Review Process

1. Access Control Verification

For each export circuit:

1. •Identify who should be authorized to call it
2. •Verify authorization check exists (witness + assertion)
3. •Check authorization uses proper cryptographic verification

// Pattern: Authorization check
witness get_admin_key(): Bytes<32>;

export circuit admin_action(): [] {
    const admin = get_admin_key();
    assert hash(admin) == admin_hash.read();  // ✓ Crypto verification
    // ... perform action
}

2. Disclosure Analysis

For each value returned from a circuit:

1. •Trace value origin (ledger, witness, computation)
2. •Verify disclose() is used for public outputs
3. •Check for implicit disclosure via ledger writes

// Must use disclose() for:
// - Return values from export circuits
// - Values derived from witnesses that become public
// - Ledger state that should be visible

3. Input Validation

For each witness function:

1. •Check type bounds (Uint<N> has 2^N values)
2. •Verify assertions bound the valid range
3. •Look for missing null/empty checks

// ❌ Unbounded witness
witness get_choice(): Uint<8>;  // 256 possibilities

export circuit vote(): [] {
    const choice = get_choice();
    voteTally[choice].increment(1);  // No bounds check!
}

// ✅ Bounded witness
export circuit vote(): [] {
    const choice = get_choice();
    assert choice < 5;  // Only 5 valid choices
    voteTally[choice].increment(1);
}

4. ZK-Specific Checks

Run through attack vector checklist:

References

• •Vulnerability Checklist - Complete vulnerability catalog
• •Disclosure Rules - Privacy leak detection patterns
• •ZK Attack Vectors - AV-01 through AV-12 documentation

Related Skills

• •critical-issues - Bug and logic error detection
• •compact-core/privacy-disclosure - Compact privacy model
• •compact-core/standard-library - Crypto function safety