Managing gas fees in solidity smart contract - ethereum

I have a ERC20 smart contract with edited transfer function
function transfer(address recipient, uint256 amount) public virtual override returns (bool) {
if(_transactionMaxValue > 0){
require(_transactionMaxValue >= amount, "You can not transfer more than 1000000 tokens at once!");
}
transfer(recipient, amount);
}
I have added if statement in transfer function, in case user indicates limit per single transaction before deploying. I was wondering if this would affect gas fees when transferring tokens, in order to decide weather to leave the "universal" ERC20 smart contract template with indictable transaction limit or compose new one, with no if statement, if no transaction limit was indicated.

I was wondering if this would affect gas fees when transferring tokens
Adding the (if and require) conditions increases the total amount of gas used, but the increase is small in the context of gas usage of other operations of the parent transfer() function. It's because in the overriding function, you're performing "just" one more storage read and few other operations in memory.
Execution of your transfer() function costs 54,620 gas (including the parent function; assuming the require() condition doesn't fail). While execution of just the parent transfer() function costs 52,320 gas.
You need to use super.transfer(recipient, amount); if you want to invoke the parent transfer() function. Without the super keyword, you'd lock the script in an infinite recursion, always invoking itself.
Also, in order to correctly override the parent function, you need to state the override modifier (and virtual if you are planning to override this function as well) before the public visibility modifier, and to return the value as declared.
pragma solidity ^0.8.0;
import "#openzeppelin/contracts/token/ERC20/ERC20.sol";
contract MyToken is ERC20 {
uint256 _transactionMaxValue = 1000000;
constructor() ERC20("MyToken", "MyT") {
_mint(msg.sender, 1000000);
}
// moved the `override virtual` before the `public` modifier
function transfer(address recipient, uint256 amount) override virtual public returns (bool) {
if(_transactionMaxValue > 0){
require(_transactionMaxValue >= amount, "You can not transfer more than 1000000 tokens at once!");
}
// added `return super.`
return super.transfer(recipient, amount);
}
}

Everything #Petr Hejda suggested is correct.
Additional improvement here would be to make a require statement fail reason string smaller and more precise, as it will result in the smaller bytecode, and therefore cheaper deployment.

Related

Solidity smart contract audit

I have a solidity code to audit like this
pragma solidity ^0.8.0;
import "#openzeppelin/contracts/token/ERC20/IERC20.sol";
// Allow to split the balance through complex rules
interface Split{
function getAddressAndAmountToSplit() view external returns(address, uint);
}
// MyBank contract
// This contract allows anyone to store any ERC20 tokens
contract MyBank {
// (token => user => amount)
mapping (address => mapping(address => uint)) public userBalance;
// (address => Split contract)
mapping (address => Split) splits;
// Deposit ERC20 tokens to the contracts
// The user must approve the bank before calling addToBalance
function addToBalance(IERC20 token, uint amount) external {
token.transferFrom(msg.sender, address(this), amount);
userBalance[address(token)][msg.sender] += amount;
}
// Withdraw part of the balance
function withdrawBalance(IERC20 token) external {
token.transfer(msg.sender, userBalance[address(token)][msg.sender]);
userBalance[address(token)][msg.sender] = 0;
}
// Allow to register a split contract
function registerSplit(Split split) external {
splits[msg.sender] = split;
}
// Split the balance into two accounts
// The usage of a Split contract allows to create complex split strategies
function splitBalance(IERC20 token) external {
Split split = splits[msg.sender];
require(split != Split(address(0x0)));
uint balance = userBalance[address(token)][msg.sender];
(address dest, uint amount) = Split(split).getAddressAndAmountToSplit();
userBalance[address(token)][dest] = amount;
userBalance[address(token)][msg.sender] = balance - amount;
}
}
What I found.
function withdrawBalance(IERC20 token) external possible reentrancy attack, because we check balance in the end
function splitBalance(IERC20 token) external - vulnerable business logic, because if amount is greater than balance we get negative value and possible integer overflow
If you have any idea of possible vulnerabilities of code above, please feel free to provide any further assistance
Probably a bit late but if anyone reads this for why I think these aren’t vulnerabilities. First of all, there are no reentrancy attacks possible here, due to the fact that transfer function only forwards 2300 gas, which is quite not enough to execute something meaningful.
Secondly, its possible to add a require check if balance is bigger than the amount. But since contract is using later than or equal to 0.8.0 compiler versions, if amount is indeed bigger than balance, it will automatically revert due to underflow.
I think as a smart contract auditor, you should know these better.

Does ERC20's transferFrom function fail if it doesn't meet the require statement?

I'm learning about the ERC20 contract by OpenZeppelin and curious about the approve function:
function transferFrom(address sender, address recipient, uint256 amount) public virtual override returns (bool) {
_transfer(sender, recipient, amount);
uint256 currentAllowance = _allowances[sender][_msgSender()];
require(currentAllowance >= amount, "ERC20: transfer amount exceeds allowance");
_approve(sender, _msgSender(), currentAllowance - amount);
return true;
}
Logically, it would make sense that you're only able to transfer amount from sender to recipient only if currentAllowance >= amount.
However, as you can see in this function body, the require(currentAllowance >= amount) occurs after the call to _transfer(sender, recipient, amount).
Now I remember reading that ethereum transactions are atomic. In this context, does it mean that if the require condition fails, then the _transfer is also not executed?
does it mean that if the require condition fails, then the _transfer is also not executed
Technically, it gets executed, but then it reverts because of the invalid opcode that failed require condition produces.
So there is no state change (this is what you probably mean by the "not executed"), but the gas has been used (for the execution).
Edit to clarify: No state change in this case means that no tokens are transfered.

Avoid using solidity's transfer()/send()?

I came across this article dated 2019/9 about avoiding using solidity's transfer()/send(). Here is the reasoning from the article:
It looks like EIP 1884 is headed our way in the Istanbul hard fork. This change increases the gas cost of the SLOAD operation and therefore breaks some existing smart contracts.
Those contracts will break because their fallback functions used to consume less than 2300 gas, and they’ll now consume more. Why is 2300 gas significant? It’s the amount of gas a contract’s fallback function receives if it’s called via Solidity’s transfer() or send() methods. 1
Since its introduction, transfer() has typically been recommended by the security community because it helps guard against reentrancy attacks. This guidance made sense under the assumption that gas costs wouldn’t change, but that assumption turned out to be incorrect. We now recommend that transfer() and send() be avoided.
In remix, there is a warning message about the code below:
(bool success, ) = recipient.call{value:_amount, gas: _gas}("");
Warning:
Low level calls: Use of "call": should be avoided whenever possible. It can lead to unexpected behavior if return value is not handled properly. Please use Direct Calls via specifying the called contract's interface. more
I am not an expert on gas cost over execution of smart contract and security. So I post this article and would appreciate thoughts and comments about it.
First, it's good to know about the fallback function in Solidity:
It has no name, no arguments, no return value, and it can be defined as one per contract, but the most important feature is it is called when a non-existent function is called on the contract such as to send or transfer or call.value()(""). So if you want to send Ether directly to an address which is a contract address, the fallback function of the destination contract will be called.
If the contract's fallback function not marked payable, it will throw an exception if the contract receives plain ether without data.
Now let's look at the reentrancy attack
contract VulnerableContract {
mapping(address => uint) public balances;
function deposit() public payable {
require(msg.value > 1);
balances[msg.sender] += msg.value;
}
function withdraw(uint _amount) public {
require(balances[msg.sender] >= _amount, "Not enough balance!");
msg.sender.call.value(_amount)("");
balances[msg.sender] -= _amount;
}
function getBalance() view public returns(uint) {
return address(this).balance;
}
fallback() payable external {}
}
VuinerableContract has a withdraw function which sends Ether to the calling address. Now the calling address could be a malicious contract such as this :
contract MaliciousContract {
VulnerableContract vulnerableContract = VulnerableContract(0x08970FEd061E7747CD9a38d680A601510CB659FB);
function deposit() public payable {
vulnerableContract.deposit.value(msg.value)();
}
function withdraw() public {
vulnerableContract.withdraw(1 ether);
}
function getBalance() view public returns(uint) {
return address(this).balance;
}
fallback () payable external {
if(address(vulnerableContract).balance > 1 ether) {
vulnerableContract.withdraw(1 ether);
}
}
}
When the malicious contract call the withdraw function, before reducing the balance of the malicious contract, it's fallback function will be called at it can steal more Ether from the vulnerable contract.
So by limiting the gas amount used by the fallback function up to 2300 gas we could prevent this attack. It means we can not put complex and expensive commands in the fallback function anymore.
Look at this for more information: https://swcregistry.io/docs/SWC-107
From Consensys article, they are saying use .call() instead of .transfer() and .send(). Only argument is that all three now sends more gas than 2300. Thus making it possible for reentrancy.
This comes to another conclusion that, regardless of all above, it is important to use checks-effects-interactions pattern to prevent reentracy attack.

Ethereum Transaction Error while calling a contract function from another contract

Following smart contract works fine in Remix and Ganache. However doesn't work on private ethereum blockchains like Kaleido or Azure. What am I missing. When I call setA it consumes all gas and then fails.
pragma solidity ^0.4.24;
contract TestA {
uint public someValue;
function setValue(uint a) public returns (bool){
someValue = a;
return true;
}
}
contract TestB {
address public recentA;
function createA() public returns (address) {
recentA = new TestA();
return recentA;
}
function setA() public returns (bool) {
TestA(recentA).setValue(6);
return true;
}
}
I tried your contract in Kaleido, and found even calling eth_estimateGas with very large numbers was resulting in "out of gas".
I changed the setValue cross-contract call to set a gas value, and I was then able to call setA, and estimating the gas for setA showed just 31663.
recentA.setValue.gas(10000)(6);
I suspect this EVM behavior is related to permissioned chains with a gasprice of zero. However, that is speculation as I haven't investigated the internals.
I've also added eth_estimateGas, and support for multiple contracts in a Solidity file, to kaleido-go here in case it's helpful:
https://github.com/kaleido-io/kaleido-go
Another possibility for others encountering "out of gas" calling across contracts - In Geth if a require call fails in a called contract, the error is reported as "out of gas" (rather than "execution reverted", or a detailed reason for the require failing).
You are hitting the limit of gas allowed to be spent per block. Information about gas limit is included into every block, so you can check what's this value is right now in your blockchain. Currently on Ethereum MainNet, GasLimit (per block) is about 8 millions (see here https://etherscan.io/blocks)
To fix this, you can start your blockchain with modified genesis file. Try to increase value of gasLimit parameter in your genesis file, which specifies the maximum amount of gas processed per block. Try "gasLimit": "8000000".
Try to discard the return statement of setValue method in contract TestA.
pragma solidity ^0.4.24;
contract TestA {
uint public someValue;
function setValue(uint a) public {
someValue = a;
}
}

Calling external contract from a contract in same block

Please check this code:
contract Token is StandardToken {
function transfer(address _to, uint256 _value) public returns (bool success) {
return super.transfer(_to, _value);
}
}
contract CrowdSale {
token = Token(:address)
function buyToken() payable {
token.transfer(beneficiary,tokenAmount); // OPERATION A
anotherAddress.transfer(msg.value); // OPERATION B
}
}
In the above example, will OPERATION A and OPERATION B be called in same block?
Or buyToken will be called which calls token.transfer and wait till it is mined and then anotherAddress.transfer is called in next block once first is mined?
I think you are mistaken about some concepts here. A block registers transactions.
The transaction is the fact of calling a method, deploying a contract, "moving the state of a contract".
In simple words : yes, a contract called by another contract will be called in the same block as the block won't contain the instructions itself but the result of the transaction .
In order to be able to give the result of a transaction, by logic, the whole instructions need to be processed on same block, otherwise the miner couldn't determine if the transaction is valid and then register it into the block.