Important
For the Common Attack Vectors on Solana check the Common Attack Vectors created for Solana Auditors Bootcamp.
Executable accounts are fully immutable. Executable is one-way (false->true) and only the account owner may set it.
Only the owner of an account may modify its data.
Accounts may only be assigned a new owner if their data is zeroed out. And only if the account is not executable. And only if the account is writable.
Only the owner of an account may assign a new owner.
Accounts with zero balance will be deleted at the end of transaction processing.
Temporary accounts with zero balance may be created during a transaction.
Total balances on all the accounts are equal before and after the execution of a transaction.
After the transaction is executed, balances of read-only accounts must be equal to the balances before the transaction.
All instructions in the transaction are executed atomically. If one fails, all account modifications are discarded.
Only the owner may change account size and data. And if the account is writable. And if the account is not executable.
Newly allocated account data is always zeroed out.
Only the owner of an account may subtract its lamports.
Any program account may add lamports to an account.
Rent fees are charged every epoch and are determined by account size.
Accounts with sufficient balance to cover 2 years of rent are exempt from fees.
Use Signer Checks to verify that specific accounts have signed a transaction. Without appropriate signer checks, accounts may be able to execute instructions they shouldn’t be authorized to perform.
To implement a signer check in Rust, simply check that an account’s is_signer property is true
if !ctx.accounts.authority.is_signer {
return Err(ProgramError::MissingRequiredSignature.into());
}In Anchor, you can use the Signer account type in your account validation struct to have Anchor automatically perform a signer check on a given account
#[derive(Accounts)]
pub struct UpdateUserData<'info> {
// performs signer check
pub user: Signer<'info>,
}Use Owner Checks to verify that accounts are owned by the expected program. Without appropriate owner checks, accounts owned by unexpected programs could be used in an instruction.
To implement an owner check in Rust, simply check that an account’s owner matches an expected program ID
if ctx.accounts.account.owner != ctx.program_id {
return Err(ProgramError::IncorrectProgramId.into());
}Anchor program account types implement the Owner trait which allows the Account<'info, T> wrapper to automatically verify program ownership
#[derive(Accounts)]
pub struct UpdateUserData<'info> {
pub user: Signer<'info>,
// performs ownership check
pub user_data: Account<'info, UserData>,
}Anchor gives you the option to explicitly define the owner of an account if it should be anything other than the currently executing program
Use Data Validation checks to verify that account data matches an expected value. Without appropriate data validation checks, unexpected accounts may be used in an instruction.
To implement data validation checks in Rust, simply compare the data stored on an account to an expected value.
if ctx.accounts.user.key() != ctx.accounts.user_data.user {
return Err(ProgramError::InvalidAccountData.into());
}In Anchor, you can use constraint to checks whether the given expression evaluates to true. Alternatively, you can use has_one to check that a target account field stored on the account matches the key of an account in the Accounts struct.
#[derive(Accounts)]
pub struct UpdateUserData<'info> {
pub user: Signer<'info>,
#[account(constraint = user_data.authority = user.key())]
pub user_data: Account<'info, UserData>,
}Use an account discriminator or initialization flag to check whether an account has already been initialized to prevent an account from being reinitialized and overriding existing account data.
To prevent account reinitialization in plain Rust, initialize accounts with an is_initialized flag and check if it has already been set to true when initializing an account
if account.is_initialized {
return Err(ProgramError::AccountAlreadyInitialized.into());
}To simplify this, use Anchor’s init constraint to create an account via a CPI to the system program and sets its discriminator
#[derive(Accounts)]
pub struct UpdateUserData<'info> {
pub user: Signer<'info>,
// if account is already initialized init will return error
#[account(init)]
pub user_data: Account<'info, UserData>,
}When an instruction requires two mutable accounts of the same type, an attacker can pass in the same account twice, causing the account to be mutated in unintended ways.
To check for duplicate mutable accounts in Rust, simply compare the public keys of the two accounts and throw an error if they are the same.
if ctx.accounts.account_one.key() == ctx.accounts.account_two.key() {
return Err(ProgramError::InvalidArgument)
}In Anchor, you can use constraint to add an explicit constraint to an account checking that it is not the same as another account.
#[derive(Accounts)]
pub struct UpdateUserData<'info> {
pub user: Signer<'info>,
#[account(
mut,
constraint = user_data.key() != different_user_data.key()
)]
pub user_data: Account<'info, UserData>,
#[account(mut)]
pub different_user_data: Account<'info, UserData>,
}Use discriminators to distinguish between different account types
To implement a discriminator in Rust, include a field in the account struct to represent the account type
#[derive(BorshSerialize, BorshDeserialize)]
pub struct User {
discriminant: AccountDiscriminant,
user: Pubkey,
}
#[derive(BorshSerialize, BorshDeserialize, PartialEq)]
pub enum AccountDiscriminant {
User,
Admin,
}To implement a discriminator check in Rust, verify that the discriminator of the deserialized account data matches the expected value
if user.discriminant != AccountDiscriminant::User {
return Err(ProgramError::InvalidAccountData.into());
}In Anchor, program account types automatically implement the Discriminator trait which creates an 8 byte unique identifier for a type
Use Anchor’s Account<'info, T> type to automatically check the discriminator of the account when deserializing the account data
#[derive(Accounts)]
pub struct UpdateUserData<'info> {
pub user: Signer<'info>,
// Account type automatically checks the Discriminator
// of the UserData Account
pub user_data: Account<'info, UserData>,
}To generate a CPI, the target program must be passed into the invoking instruction as an account. This means that any target program could be passed into the instruction. Your program should check for incorrect or unexpected programs.
Perform program checks in native programs by simply comparing the public key of the passed-in program to the program you expected.
pub fn cpi_secure(ctx: Context<Cpi>, amount: u64) -> Result<()> {
if &spl_token::ID != ctx.accounts.token_program.key {
return Err(ProgramError::IncorrectProgramId);
}
...
// CPI logic goes here
}If a program is written in Anchor, then it may have a publicly available CPI module. This makes invoking the program from another Anchor program simple and secure. The Anchor CPI module automatically checks that the address of the program passed in matches the address of the program stored in the module.
The best practice while using Anchor is to always use Program<'info, T>, which will check that the account is executable and it is the given Program. For example:
use anchor_spl::token::Token;
#[derive(Accounts)]
pub struct InitializeExchange<'info> {
// ...
pub token_program: Program<'info, Token>,
// ...
}The create_program_address function derives a PDA without searching for the canonical bump. This means there may be multiple valid bumps, all of which will produce different addresses.
Using find_program_address ensures that the highest valid bump, or canonical bump, is used for the derivation, thus creating a deterministic way to find an address given specific seeds.
Recommended workflow:
- During Account Initialization derive the PDA using the
find_program_address. This will produce PDA along with the canonical bump. The next step is to store the produced bump along with program data in an Account. - When using the PDA with different instructions, use
create_program_addresswith the bump stored in the Account in step 1.
Upon initialization, you can use Anchor's seeds and bump constraint to ensure that PDA derivations in the account validation struct always use the canonical bump.
Anchor allows you to specify a bump with the bump = <some_bump> constraint when verifying the address of a PDA.
pub fn _initialize_exchange(
ctx: Context<InitializeExchange>,
) -> Result<()> {
// ...
// Store the produced canonical bump
let escrow = &mut ctx.accounts.escrow;
escrow.bump = ctx.bumps.escrow;
// ...
Ok(())
}
pub fn _update_exchange(
ctx: Context<UpdateExchange>,
) -> Result<()> {
// Address correctness is ensured in the Context
}
pub struct InitializeExchange<'info> {
#[account(mut)]
pub side_a: Signer<'info>,
#[account(
init,
payer = side_a,
space = 8 + Escrow::LEN,
seeds = [b"escrow"], // specify desired seeds here
bump // produce canonical bump
)]
pub escrow: Account<'info, Escrow>,
// ...
}
pub struct UpdateExchange<'info> {
#[account(
mut,
seeds = [b"escrow"], // specify desired seeds here
escrow.bump // check the bump against the one already stored
)]
pub escrow: Account<'info, Escrow>,
}Closing an account improperly creates an opportunity for reinitialization/revival attacks.
The Solana runtime garbage collects accounts when they are no longer rent exempt. Closing accounts involves transferring the lamports stored in the account for rent exemption to another account of your choosing.
The recommended workflow for manually closing an account is to use the Anchor's logic (i.e. check the close Reference)
You can use the Anchor #[account(close = <address_to_send_lamports>)] constraint to securely close accounts. The close parameter will (Close Reference):
Movelamports from the data Account to the<address_to_send_lamports>Assignownership of the data Account back to theSystem ProgramReallocthe data size of the Account to 0.
For example:
#[derive(Accounts)]
pub struct CancelExchange<'info> {
#[account(mut)]
pub side_a: Signer<'info>,
#[account(
mut,
close = side_a, // this is <address_to_send_lamports> (i.e. Rent receiver)
seeds = [b"escrow"],
escrow.bump
)]
pub escrow: Account<'info, Escrow>,
}If you have any questions feel free to reach out to us on Discord.