Review Contract

Review Cardano Smart Contract

Perform a structured security review of a Cardano smart contract (validator, minting policy, or staking script). Produces findings with severity ratings and actionable remediation.

When to use

• User asks to review, audit, or check a Cardano smart contract
• User wants to find vulnerabilities in a validator
• User asks "is this contract safe?" or "what are the risks?"
• Before deploying a validator to mainnet
• When reviewing a pull request that modifies on-chain code

When NOT to use

• For off-chain transaction building code (use general code review)
• For Cardano node configuration or infrastructure
• For non-Cardano smart contracts (Solidity, Move, etc.)
• When the user only wants a feature explanation, not a security assessment

Key principles

1. eUTxO model awareness: Cardano uses eUTxO, not accounts. Vulnerabilities differ fundamentally from EVM chains. Focus on datum/redeemer validation, value preservation, and transaction-level attacks.
2. Completeness over speed: Check every pattern in the vulnerability checklist. Missing one critical issue negates the value of the entire review.
3. Context matters: A pattern that is safe in one validator design may be dangerous in another. Understand the protocol design before judging.
4. Severity accuracy: Do not inflate severity. A missing check that cannot be exploited in practice is informational, not critical.
5. Actionable output: Every finding must include what is wrong, why it matters, and how to fix it.

Workflow

Step 1: Understand the contract

Read the validator source files and any associated documentation.

• Identify the contract type: spending validator, minting policy, staking validator, or multi-validator
• Identify the datum type and its fields
• Identify the redeemer type and its variants
• Identify what the validator is trying to accomplish (escrow, DEX, lending, etc.)
• Note any linked validators (e.g., minting policy that works with a spending validator)

Search the project for related files:

• Look for test files, specification documents, and off-chain code
• Look for configuration or parameter files

Step 2: Search Bundled Documentation

Search the bundled documentation for relevant content:

• ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/../../docs/sources/aiken/ - Aiken language docs
• ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/../../docs/sources/aiken-design-patterns/ - Aiken design patterns
• ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/../../docs/sources/smart-contract-vulnerabilities/ - Smart contract vulnerability reference
• ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/../../docs/sources/plutus/ - Plutus docs

Step 3: Check against the vulnerability checklist

Go through every item in the vulnerability checklist (see References below). For each pattern:

1. Determine if the pattern is applicable to this contract type
2. If applicable, search for the specific code patterns that indicate vulnerability
3. If a vulnerability is found, document it with the exact code location

Key checks by contract type:

Spending validators:

• Double satisfaction: Are inputs uniquely identified?
• Datum hijacking: Is the output datum validated?
• Value preservation: Are output values checked?
• Signer checks: Are required signers validated?
• Datum transitions: Are state transitions constrained?
• Output ordering: Are outputs found by address/value, not index?

Minting policies:

• Infinite minting: Is minting quantity constrained?
• NFT authentication: Is the NFT tied to a UTxO for uniqueness?
• Unchecked quantity: Is the exact mint amount validated?

Staking validators:

• Withdrawal validation bypass (withdraw-zero attack)
• Insufficient staking control

Step 4: Language-specific checks

Aiken:

• Use of expect vs when/is -- expect causes script failure on mismatch; sometimes this is desired, sometimes it hides logic errors
• Function signatures and type safety
• CIP-57 blueprint compliance
• Proper use of builtin functions vs stdlib
• Trace messages that leak information

Plutus (Haskell):

• Unsafe use of error vs returning False
• Integer overflow considerations
• Lazy evaluation causing unexpected memory use
• Proper use of PlutusTx.IsData derivations

OpShin (Python):

• Type annotation completeness
• Python-specific pitfalls (mutable defaults, etc.)
• Correct use of OpShin-specific decorators

Step 5: Search for cross-cutting concerns

• Search for hardcoded addresses or currency symbols
• Search for time-dependent logic and check range handling
• Search for any TODO, FIXME, HACK comments
• Check if tests exist and what they cover
• Check if there is an off-chain component and whether it matches on-chain logic

Step 6: Compile and report findings

Organize findings by severity:

• Critical: Direct loss of funds or complete protocol bypass. Must fix before deployment.
• High: Likely exploitable under realistic conditions. Should fix before deployment.
• Medium: Exploitable under specific conditions or causes protocol degradation. Should fix.
• Low: Minor issues, defense-in-depth concerns, or unlikely attack vectors. Consider fixing.
• Info: Best practice suggestions, code quality, documentation gaps.

For each finding, provide:

### [Severity] Finding title

**Location**: file:line
**Pattern**: Which vulnerability pattern from the checklist
**Description**: What the issue is
**Impact**: What an attacker could do
**Recommendation**: How to fix it

End with a summary table and overall risk assessment.

References

• references/vulnerability-checklist.md -- The 26 eUTxO vulnerability patterns with detection and mitigation guidance
• Search ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/../../docs/sources/ for protocol specifications, design documents, and architecture notes
• Aiken standard library documentation at https://aiken-lang.github.io/stdlib/
• Cardano CIPs for relevant standards (CIP-57 for Plutus blueprints, CIP-68 for token metadata)

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: cardano-foundation
• Source: cardano-foundation/cardano-dev-skills
• License: Apache-2.0
• Homepage: https://cardano-foundation.github.io/cardano-dev-skills/

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.