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Smart contracts are Turing-complete programs running on the blockchain. They cannot be modified, even when bugs are detected. The Selfdestruct function is the only way to destroy a contract on the blockchain system and transfer all the…

Software Engineering · Computer Science 2020-10-07 Jiachi Chen

An important problem in smart contract security is understanding the likelihood and criticality of discovered, or potential, weaknesses in contracts. In this paper we provide a summary of Ethereum smart contract audits performed for 23…

Software Engineering · Computer Science 2020-01-13 Alex Groce , Josselin Feist , Gustavo Grieco , Michael Colburn

Smart contract vulnerabilities can cause substantial financial losses due to the immutability of code after deployment. While existing tools detect vulnerabilities, they cannot effectively repair them. In this paper, we propose SCPatcher, a…

Software Engineering · Computer Science 2026-04-02 Xiaoqi Li , Shipeng Ye , Wenkai Li , Zongwei Li

Blockchain technology (BT) Ethereum Smart Contracts allows programmable transactions that involve the transfer of monetary assets among peers on a BT network independent of a central authorizing agency. Ethereum Smart Contracts are programs…

Cryptography and Security · Computer Science 2021-05-21 Noama Fatima Samreen , Manar H. Alalfi

Ethereum has officially provided a set of system-level cryptographic APIs to enhance smart contracts with cryptographic capabilities. These APIs have been utilized in over 10% of Ethereum transactions, motivating developers to implement…

Cryptography and Security · Computer Science 2024-08-12 Jiashuo Zhang , Yiming Shen , Jiachi Chen , Jianzhong Su , Yanlin Wang , Ting Chen , Jianbo Gao , Zhong Chen

Ethereum smart contracts are an innovation built on top of the blockchain technology, which provides a platform for automatically executing contracts in an anonymous, distributed, and trusted way. The problem is magnified by the fact that…

Cryptography and Security · Computer Science 2019-11-07 Jialiang Chang , Bo Gao , Hao Xiao , Jun Sun , Yan Cai , Zijiang Yang

Due to the risks associated with vulnerabilities in smart contracts, their security has gained significant attention in recent years. However, there is a lack of open datasets on smart contract vulnerabilities and their fixes that allows…

Cryptography and Security · Computer Science 2022-12-22 Majd Soud , Ilham Qasse , Grischa Liebel , Mohammad Hamdaqa

Scam contracts on Ethereum have rapidly evolved alongside the rise of DeFi and NFT ecosystems, utilizing increasingly complex code obfuscation techniques to avoid early detection. This paper systematically investigates how obfuscation…

Cryptography and Security · Computer Science 2026-01-27 Zhang Sheng , Tan Kia Quang , Shen Wang , Shengchen Duan , Kai Li , Yue Duan

Ethereum smart contracts are highly powerful, immutable, and able to retain massive amounts of tokens. However, smart contracts keep attracting attackers to benefit from smart contract flaws and Ethereum unexpected behavior. Thus,…

Cryptography and Security · Computer Science 2024-04-10 Wejdene Haouari , Abdelhakim Senhaji Hafid , Marios Fokaefs

Symbolic analysis of security exploits in smart contracts has demonstrated to be valuable for analyzing predefined vulnerability properties. While some symbolic tools perform complex analysis steps, they require a predetermined invocation…

Cryptography and Security · Computer Science 2019-06-10 Wesley Joon-Wie Tann , Xing Jie Han , Sourav Sen Gupta , Yew-Soon Ong

Smart contracts are programs running on a blockchain. They are immutable to change, and hence can not be patched for bugs once deployed. Thus it is critical to ensure they are bug-free and well-designed before deployment. A Contract defect…

Software Engineering · Computer Science 2020-04-20 Jiachi Chen , Xin Xia , David Lo , John Grundy , Daniel Xiapu Luo , Ting Chen

Ethereum smart contracts are programs that can be collectively executed by a network of mutually untrusted nodes. Smart contracts handle and transfer assets of values, offering strong incentives for malicious attacks. Intrusion attacks are…

Software Engineering · Computer Science 2019-11-28 Xinming Wang , Jiahao He , Zhijian Xie , Gansen Zhao , Shing-Chi Cheung

Developing secure smart contracts remains a challenging task. Existing approaches are either impractical or leave the burden to developers for fixing bugs. In this paper, we propose the first practical smart contract compiler, called HCC,…

Cryptography and Security · Computer Science 2024-12-09 Jens-Rene Giesen , Sebastien Andreina , Michael Rodler , Ghassan O. Karame , Lucas Davi

Smart contracts on Ethereum handle millions of U.S. Dollars and other financial assets. In the past, attackers have exploited smart contracts to steal these assets. The Ethereum community has developed plenty of tools to detect vulnerable…

Cryptography and Security · Computer Science 2022-02-28 Chavhan Sujeet Yashavant , Saurabh Kumar , Amey Karkare

Due to the inherent immutability of blockchain technology, smart contract updates require their deployment at new addresses rather than modifying existing ones, thus fragmenting version histories and creating critical blind spots for…

Software Engineering · Computer Science 2025-07-09 Fatou Ndiaye Mbodji , Vinny Adjibi , Moustapha Awwalou Diouf , Gervais Mendy , Kui Liu , Jacques Klein , Tegawende Bissyande

Ethereum Smart contracts use blockchain to transfer values among peers on networks without central agency. These programs are deployed on decentralized applications running on top of the blockchain consensus protocol to enable people to…

Cryptography and Security · Computer Science 2021-05-10 Noama Fatima Samreen , Manar H. Alalfi

Programming errors in Ethereum smart contracts can result in catastrophic financial losses from stolen cryptocurrency. While vulnerability detectors can prevent vulnerable contracts from being deployed, this does not mean that such…

Cryptography and Security · Computer Science 2021-09-03 Simon Joseph Aquilina , Fran Casino , Mark Vella , Joshua Ellul , Constantinos Patsakis

Permissionless blockchains allow the execution of arbitrary programs (called smart contracts), enabling mutually untrusted entities to interact without relying on trusted third parties. Despite their potential, repeated security concerns…

Cryptography and Security · Computer Science 2018-08-27 Petar Tsankov , Andrei Dan , Dana Drachsler Cohen , Arthur Gervais , Florian Buenzli , Martin Vechev

Smart contracts deployed on blockchain platforms are vulnerable to various security vulnerabilities. However, only a small number of Ethereum contracts have released their source code, so vulnerability detection at the bytecode level is…

Cryptography and Security · Computer Science 2026-02-03 Jiuyang Bu , Wenkai Li , Zongwei Li , Zeng Zhang , Xiaoqi Li

The immutability of smart contracts on blockchain platforms like Ethereum promotes security and trustworthiness but presents challenges for updates, bug fixes, or adding new features post-deployment. These limitations can lead to…

Software Engineering · Computer Science 2025-04-04 Ilham Qasse , Isra M. Ali , Nafisa Ahmed , Mohammad Hamdaqa , Björn Þór Jónsson