Quantstamp, a blockchain security platform, has released a new service in collaboration with researchers from the University of Toronto to detect common attack pathways used by exploiters before protocols get hacked. The service, called Economic Exploit Analysis, is designed to quell the increasing threats of flash loan attacks, which have stolen an estimated $207 million worth of tokens in the first half of 2021 alone.
Flash loan attacks can drain the entire total value locked (TVL) of a DeFi protocol, and their complicated nature combined with DeFi’s composability means these attacks often evade conventional audits, said Martin Derka, head of new initiatives at Quantstamp. DeFi has the potential to change the global financial infrastructure for the better, but its success requires preempting threats like flash loan attacks. We developed this tool to provide DeFi protocols an extra layer of security on top of audits.
The Quantstamp service is available for both deployed and undeployed protocols, and while the search process of the tool is automated, some manual guidance and protocol-specific adaptations are required.