{"title":"DeFiRanger: Detecting DeFi Price Manipulation Attacks","authors":"Siwei Wu, Zhou Yu, Dabao Wang, Yajin Zhou, Lei Wu, Haoyu Wang, Xingliang Yuan","doi":"10.1109/TDSC.2023.3346888","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"The rapid growth of Decentralized Finance (DeFi) boosts the blockchain ecosystem. At the same time, attacks on DeFi applications (apps) are increasing. However, to the best of our knowledge, existing smart contract vulnerability detection tools cannot directly detect DeFi attacks. That's because they lack the capability to recover and understand high-level DeFi semantics, e.g., a user trades a token pair X and Y in a Decentralized EXchange (DEX). In this work, we focus on the detection of two new types of price manipulation attacks. To this end, we propose a platform-independent method to identify high-level DeFi semantics. Specifically, we first construct the Cash Flow Tree (CFT) from a raw transaction and then lifting the low-level semantics to high-level ones, including five advanced DeFi actions. Finally, we use patterns expressed with the recovered DeFi semantics to detect price manipulation attacks. We implemented a prototype named DeFiRanger that detected 14 zero-day security incidents. These findings were reported to affected parties or/and the community for the first time. Furthermore, the backtest experiment discovered 15 unknown historical security incidents. We further performed an attack analysis to shed light on the root causes of vulnerabilities incurring price manipulation attacks.","PeriodicalId":13047,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":7.0000,"publicationDate":"2024-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"1","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing","FirstCategoryId":"94","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1109/TDSC.2023.3346888","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"COMPUTER SCIENCE, HARDWARE & ARCHITECTURE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 1
Abstract
The rapid growth of Decentralized Finance (DeFi) boosts the blockchain ecosystem. At the same time, attacks on DeFi applications (apps) are increasing. However, to the best of our knowledge, existing smart contract vulnerability detection tools cannot directly detect DeFi attacks. That's because they lack the capability to recover and understand high-level DeFi semantics, e.g., a user trades a token pair X and Y in a Decentralized EXchange (DEX). In this work, we focus on the detection of two new types of price manipulation attacks. To this end, we propose a platform-independent method to identify high-level DeFi semantics. Specifically, we first construct the Cash Flow Tree (CFT) from a raw transaction and then lifting the low-level semantics to high-level ones, including five advanced DeFi actions. Finally, we use patterns expressed with the recovered DeFi semantics to detect price manipulation attacks. We implemented a prototype named DeFiRanger that detected 14 zero-day security incidents. These findings were reported to affected parties or/and the community for the first time. Furthermore, the backtest experiment discovered 15 unknown historical security incidents. We further performed an attack analysis to shed light on the root causes of vulnerabilities incurring price manipulation attacks.
期刊介绍:
The "IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing (TDSC)" is a prestigious journal that publishes high-quality, peer-reviewed research in the field of computer science, specifically targeting the development of dependable and secure computing systems and networks. This journal is dedicated to exploring the fundamental principles, methodologies, and mechanisms that enable the design, modeling, and evaluation of systems that meet the required levels of reliability, security, and performance.
The scope of TDSC includes research on measurement, modeling, and simulation techniques that contribute to the understanding and improvement of system performance under various constraints. It also covers the foundations necessary for the joint evaluation, verification, and design of systems that balance performance, security, and dependability.
By publishing archival research results, TDSC aims to provide a valuable resource for researchers, engineers, and practitioners working in the areas of cybersecurity, fault tolerance, and system reliability. The journal's focus on cutting-edge research ensures that it remains at the forefront of advancements in the field, promoting the development of technologies that are critical for the functioning of modern, complex systems.