QuillAudits Patches 7 Bugs in Huddle01: Whitelisting & NFT Airdrop Risks Mitigated

The Future of Decentralized Communication

Huddle01 envisions expanding its decentralized infrastructure to facilitate seamless audio and video interactions on a global scale. This ambitious initiative aims to revolutionize digital communication by enabling high-quality, real-time interactions that are accessible to users regardless of their location. By leveraging cutting-edge blockchain technology, Huddle01 seeks to ensure not only security and privacy for all participants but also cost-effectiveness, minimizing barriers to entry for individuals and organizations. This transformative approach will empower users to connect, collaborate, and share ideas more efficiently, fostering a more connected and dynamic digital ecosystem.

Addressing Huddle01's Security Vulnerabilities

Our audit of Huddle01 uncovered critical vulnerabilities that required immediate attention, including unclear NFT airdrop processes and the inability to update public allocation values.

To address these issues, we clarified the airdrop strategy, ensuring users understood the NFT minting timeline. We also enhanced contract functions to allow real-time updates to allocation values, improving operational efficiency.

These enhancements significantly strengthened Huddle01's security posture, fostering user trust and confidence in the platform.

Huddle01's Journey Through Our Audit Process

Our comprehensive audit was executed through the following steps:

1. Information Gathering
   • Collected and reviewed all relevant documentation, including whitepaper, technical specifications, and design documents.
   • Obtained a clear understanding of the Huddle01 platform's functionality and intended user interactions.
   • Discussed client concerns and specific areas of focus for the audit.
      
2. Manual Code Review:
   • Conducted a line-by-line review of the smart contract code, focusing on:
     • Vulnerability identification: Searching for known vulnerabilities like reentrancy, front-running, integer overflows, and access control issues, etc.
     • Logic flaws: Identifying inconsistencies or unintended behaviours in the code logic.
     • Solidity best practices: Compliance with secure coding standards and adherence to established guidelines.
        
3. Functional Testing:
   • Developed and executed a comprehensive set of test cases covering various user interactions and edge cases.
   • Leveraged tools like Hardhat and Ganache to deploy and test the smart contract locally.
      
4. Automated Testing:
   • Employed static analysis tools like QuillShield to identify vulnerabilities through automated code scanning.
   • Utilized symbolic execution tools like Mythril to explore various code execution paths and uncover potential attack vectors.
   • Integrated unit tests are written by the Huddle01 team to verify specific contract functions and their behaviour.
      
5. Reporting & Remediation:
   • Prepared a detailed report outlining all identified vulnerabilities, categorized by severity and potential impact.
   • Provided clear recommendations for fixing each vulnerability, including code snippets and best practices.
   • Collaborated with the Huddle01 Protocol team to prioritize and address the identified issues.
   • Conducted additional verification testing after vulnerability fixes were implemented.

QuillAudits' Strategic Approach to Huddle01 Security Audits

Our approach to auditing Huddle01 involved a combination of threat modeling, a security-first mindset, and extensive testing. We used both white-box and black-box testing methods to ensure a thorough assessment, maintaining transparency and clear communication with the Huddle01 team throughout the process.

Comprehensive Audit Discoveries and Remediation Strategies

Our comprehensive audit of these contracts revealed a total of 7 issues, categorised by severity:

• Medium Severity Issues (2): These issues pose a moderate risk and should be addressed promptly.
   
• Informational Issues (7): These findings provide valuable insights and recommendations for improvement.

Here is a breakdown of the critical vulnerabilities in audit discoveries and remediation strategies:

Audit Discoveries

Centralization Issue

• Discovery: The sale contract lacked clarity regarding the NFT minting process, leading to user uncertainty about their token purchases. Users were required to make payments into the contract without immediately receiving corresponding tokens. The contract failed to define how the NFT representation would function, relying instead on the protocol to airdrop NFTs corresponding to payments made.
   
• Impact: This ambiguity could lead to confusion and mistrust among users, potentially deterring participation in the sale.
   

Impossible to Update Undesirable Public Allocation Value After Sale Has Begun

• Discovery: The function setPublicAllocation allows the contract owner or a designated whitelist setter to set the public allocation of tokens before the sale starts. However, if set incorrectly, this value cannot be changed after the sale begins. This poses significant risks, including the inability to adjust the allocation if set incorrectly, forcing the protocol to operate under suboptimal conditions throughout the sale. Furthermore, if the contract is deployed with a start time close to block.timestamp, and setPublicAllocation is not called immediately, the allocation defaults to zero, rendering the contract nonfunctional and preventing user participation.
   
• Impact: These conditions could severely restrict user engagement and undermine the overall effectiveness of the sale.
   

Remediation Strategies
 

1. Centralization Issue: To address the centralization issue, the Huddle01 team enhanced documentation to clarify the NFT airdrop process, instilling greater confidence in users regarding their token purchases. They also communicated the intentional delay in NFT minting, explaining the rationale behind their approach and the complexities involved with minting on their Layer 3 blockchain.
    
2. Impossible to Update Undesirable Public Allocation Value After Sale Has Begun: The team adopted fixed allocation values based on predetermined crypto-economic models to mitigate risks associated with incorrect public allocation settings. This intentional design decision aims to limit future risks by ensuring that allocation values remain consistent and predictable throughout the sale process.
    

Impressed by our findings and recommendations, the Huddle01 Protocol developers promptly addressed all identified vulnerabilities.

Through our collaborative efforts, the Huddle01 Protocol project is now significantly more secure, ensuring the protection of user funds.

The Huddle01 Protocol’s smart contracts security audit identified and addressed critical vulnerabilities, protecting user funds and ensuring platform stability. This case study demonstrates the importance of proactive security measures for blockchain-based projects, especially those dealing with financial assets. By conducting audits and addressing identified issues, the Huddle01 Protocol Team has taken a significant step towards securing its platform and safeguarding user trust.