Threat Model and Risk Assessment

A crucial aspect of the Gemforce platform's security is the continuous process of threat modeling and risk assessment. This systematic approach helps identify potential threats, evaluate their associated risks, and prioritize mitigation strategies across all components of the platform, from smart contracts to cloud infrastructure and application logic.

1. Threat Modeling Methodology

We employ a structured threat modeling methodology, typically following these steps:

  1. Define Scope: Clearly delineate the system boundaries, including involved components, external dependencies, and user interaction points.
  2. Identify Assets: Determine what we want to protect (e.g., user funds, private keys, sensitive data, platform reputation).
  3. Identify Threats and Attack Vectors: Brainstorm potential adversaries and their motivations, and how they might exploit vulnerabilities to compromise assets. We often use frameworks like STRIDE (Spoofing, Tampering, Repudiation, Information Disclosure, Denial of Service, Elevation of Privilege) as a guide. For blockchain components, common attack vectors include reentrancy, front-running, integer overflow/underflow, access control bypass, and logic errors.
  4. Identify Vulnerabilities: Determine weaknesses in the system design, implementation, or configuration that could be exploited by identified threats.
  5. Analyze Risks: Assess the likelihood of each threat occurring and its potential impact. Risks are typically scored based on severity (e.g., Critical, High, Medium, Low).
  6. Develop Mitigation Strategies: Propose and implement controls to reduce the likelihood or impact of identified risks.
  7. Verify and Validate: Ensure that implemented mitigations are effective and that the overall security posture is improved.

2. Key Threat Categories and Examples

2.1. Smart Contract Threats

  • Reentrancy: An external call to an untrusted contract allows the untrusted contract to call back into the original contract before the first invocation completes.
    • Mitigation: Checks-Effects-Interactions pattern, reentrancy guards, untrusted call limits.
  • Integer Overflow/Underflow: Arithmetical operations result in numbers outside the range of the variable type, leading to unexpected behavior.
    • Mitigation: Use SafeMath or Solidity's built-in checked arithmetic (default from Solidity 0.8.0).
  • Access Control Bypass: Unauthorized users gain access to privileged functions.
    • Mitigation: Implement robust access control (Ownable, role-based access control), validate msg.sender.
  • Front-Running/Sandwich Attacks: Attackers observe a pending transaction and submit their own transaction with higher gas fees to execute before or after the victim's transaction.
    • Mitigation: Batching transactions, commit-reveal schemes, using trusted relays.
  • Denial of Service (DoS): Attackers prevent legitimate users from accessing services or executing transactions.
    • Mitigation: Avoid unbounded loops, limit array sizes, cap gas usage for critical functions.
  • Logic Errors: Flaws in the contract's business logic, leading to incorrect state transitions or unintended behavior.
    • Mitigation: Comprehensive unit and integration testing, formal verification, peer review, third-party audits.

2.2. Application (Cloud Functions & API) Threats

  • Injection Attacks (SQL Injection, Command Injection, XSS): Untrusted input is executed as code.
    • Mitigation: Input validation, parameterized queries, Output Encoding.
  • Broken Authentication/Authorization: Weak or improperly implemented identity and access management.
    • Mitigation: Strong authentication protocols (MFA), secure session management, strict RBAC, JWT validation.
  • Sensitive Data Exposure: Confidential data is not properly protected, leading to unauthorized access.
    • Mitigation: Encryption at rest and in transit, data minimization, strict access controls.
  • Security Misconfiguration: Insecure default configurations or improper server configurations.
    • Mitigation: Hardening guides, regular security audits, automated configuration checks.
  • Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF): An attacker induces the server to make requests to internal or external resources on its behalf.
    • Mitigation: Input validation for URLs, whitelisting allowed domains.

2.3. Infrastructure Threats

  • Unauthorized Access: Malicious actors gaining access to cloud resources or servers.
    • Mitigation: Strong access controls (IAM), MFA, network segmentation, firewalls, regular vulnerability scans.
  • DDoS Attacks: Overwhelming system resources to cause service disruption.
    • Mitigation: DDoS protection services, load balancing, rate limiting.
  • Data Breach: Compromise of databases or storage leading to sensitive data exfiltration.
    • Mitigation: Encryption, data access logging, intrusion detection, regular backups.
  • Supply Chain Attacks: Compromise of software dependencies or development tools.
    • Mitigation: Dependency scanning, trusted repositories, secure development environments.

3. Risk Assessment and Prioritization

Each identified threat is assessed based on its likelihood (e.g., Rare, Unlikely, Possible, Likely, Certain) and impact (e.g., Negligible, Minor, Moderate, Major, Catastrophic). Risks are then prioritized (e.g., Critical, High, Medium, Low) to guide mitigation efforts.

Risk Level Description Action
Critical Immediate and severe impact on critical assets or operations. Immediate action required, highest priority.
High Significant impact, potentially leading to financial loss or reputation damage. Prioritized mitigation, requires urgent attention.
Medium Moderate impact, may cause minor disruption or data loss. Scheduled mitigation, consider in development roadmap.
Low Minimal impact, unlikely to cause significant harm. Monitor and address as resources allow.

4. Continuous Improvement

Threat modeling and risk assessment are not one-time activities but continuous processes. As the Gemforce platform evolves, new features are added, and the threat landscape changes, these assessments are regularly revisited, updated, and integrated into the software development lifecycle. This iterative approach ensures the platform's security posture remains robust and resilient against emerging threats.