Circles — Rewards up to $52K in USDC

6 min readSep 3, 2024

Starting September 5, 2024, at 15:00 GMT to September 19, 2024, at 15:00 GMT

We invite all white hat hackers to join the hunt on Circles audit competition.

All experience levels are welcome; whether you are a seasoned security veteran or an amateur, show us what you got! Prizes will be given based on the severity level of each vulnerability found.

About the Competition

Starting September 5, a new vault will open in the Hats dApp — “Circles”.
Participants can check the contracts in scope and start searching for bugs.

Intro to the project

Circles is a digital protocol designed to create and distribute fair and social money through personal and group currencies. It is built on the Gnosis Chain to implement a system of interconnected, individual economic units that collectively form a larger, more equitable economic network.

Short overview of the audit scope

[~2500 Sloc/Loc]
The competition code language is Solidity and the SLOC estimation for this competition is ~2500 SLOC. The competition is hosted on the Ethereum Mainnet. Please ensure you have ETH in your wallet to submit reports.

Stay up-to-date with the competition, chat with the team, and get your questions answered by joining the dedicated Discord channel on the Hats server.
All audit reports will be published in our Discord on the day of the competition. Don’t miss the latest updates and insights — join now and be the first to know!

Audit competition rewards

Deposited Amount: The deposited amount is ~$65K in USDC, making the available prize pool ~$52K in USDC.
Service Fee: All rewards mentioned in this article and on the Hats dApp UI have already deducted a 20% Hats service fee.
Severities: Low, Medium, High

Rewards and calculation
For our audit competition, the entire prize pool is up for grabs across all severity levels. Each severity level has a designated point value and a maximum payout cap.

Maximum Reward Caps per Submission:

Low Severity: 800 USDC (equals 1 point)
Medium Severity: 4,800 USDC (equals 6 points)
High Severity: 9,600 USDC (equals 12 points)

*For simplicity, there is a relation between the points and the cap. If the cap is 800 USDC it equals to the allocation of 1.54% of the maximum reward.

Points are consistently awarded within the same severity level unless the committee decides to adjust this. For instance, both the first and second low-severity findings will earn 1 point each. This standard applies to medium and high severities as well.

Calculating the Winner’s Reward:

The formula for a winner’s reward is as follows:

Point Value = Prize Pool / Total Points*

*Awarded for the entire competition

Examples for Clarity:

Example #1:

163 Low Severity: 163 points
1 Medium Severity: 6 points
1 High Severity: 12 points

Total points: 181

In this scenario:

Value of 1 Point = 52,000 USDC/181 Total points = 287.30 USDC
The rewards for this example will be as follows:
Low (163 points): $287.30 each
Medium (6 points): $1723.75 in total.
High (12 points): $3447.6 in total.

Example #2

10 Low Severity: 10 points
1 Medium: 6 points

Total points: 16

In this scenario:

Value of 1 Point = 52,000 USDC/16 Total points = 3250 USDC
The results exceed the max reward per low severity, so the value of a point is adjusted.
The rewards for this example will be as follows:
Low (10 points): $3250 each -> $800
Medium (6 points): $19500 each -> $4800

Severities

High Severity

Issues that will qualify for this bracket will be assigned 12 points.

High-severity vulnerability description:

For a submission to be considered a HIGH-risk vulnerability, issues must:

Direct theft of any user funds, whether at rest or in motion
Long-term freezing of user funds
Theft or long-term freezing of unclaimed yield or other assets
Protocol insolvency

Medium Severity

Issues that will qualify for this bracket will be assigned 6 points.

Medium severity vulnerability description:

Issues that lead to an economic loss but do not lead to direct loss of on-chain assets. Examples are:

Gas griefing attacks (make users overpay for gas)
Attacks that make essential functionality of the contracts temporarily unusable or inaccessible
Short-term freezing of user funds

Low severity

Issues that will be qualified for this bracket will be assigned with 1 point.

Low severity vulnerability description:

Issues where the behavior of the contracts differs from the intended behavior (as described in the docs and by common sense), but no funds are at risk.

Limitations

Reporters will not receive a bounty for any known issue, such as:

Issues mentioned in any previous audit reports
Vulnerabilities that were already made public (either by HATs or by a third party)
“Centralization risks” that are known and/or explicitly coded into the protocol (e.g. an administrator can upgrade crucial contracts and steal all funds)
Attacks that require access to leaked private keys or trusted addresses
Issues/contracts mentioned in the out-of-scope section

Submission Guidelines — High/Medium/Low severities:

General Information:

The Hats team will create a new repository called “Circles audit competition” under the Hats.finance organization on GitHub. The repository will be kept private until the competition starts. Hats bot will fork it on the first submission. To participate, security researchers must submit their findings on-chain, and an automatic GitHub issue will be generated in the forked repository.
How it Works: Video Explanation

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:

Submissions should be made using our Dapp.
You can submit one on-chain submission mentioning all issues found on the repo.
All new submissions will be created on Hats forked repo on Hats: Hats GitHub

Report Format:

Please send a plain ASCII description in the following format:
[TITLE]: A short description of the issue.
SEVERITY: Either High, Medium, or Low (as per the rules).
Submission should contain at least one test demonstrating the problem and, if possible, a possible fix.

Report Template:

Description: Describe the context and the effect of the vulnerability.
Attack scenario: Describe how the vulnerability can be exploited.

Attachment:

Proof of Concept (PoC) File: Provide a file containing a proof of concept (PoC) that demonstrates the vulnerability.
Revised Code File (Optional): If possible, provide a second file containing the revised code that offers a potential fix for the vulnerability. This file should include:
Comment with a clear explanation of the proposed fix.
The revised code with suggested changes.
Add any additional comments or explanations clarifying how the fix addresses the vulnerability.
Recommendation: Describe a patch or potential fix for the vulnerability.

Due to the nature of the audit competition mechanism, the report will not be encrypted.

Evaluation:

The first participant to submit an issue following guidelines gets a bounty for that issue (issues already received or out of scope will not receive a reward).
The competition starts on September 5 at 15:00 GMT and ends on September 19 at 15:00 GMT.
Issues that we are aware of (as witnessed by any open issues in the repository) will not be eligible for the bug bounty.

Compensation and Impact

A prize pool of ~$52K USDC and NFT rewards from our hacker collection will be distributed among security researchers who submit eligible vulnerability disclosures.

Compensation payment timeline:

Ten days after the competition ends, we will announce a winner list.
Alongside the winner announcement post, submitters can send disputes to the committee team and request clarification. They can also involve the Hats security team in the process. The goal is to facilitate honest and professional debate regarding disputed submissions.
Between 7–14 days after the announcement, we will publish a split contract where the winners can claim their rewards.
HATS Service Fee: A 20% deduction from the payout will always be allocated as the service fee.

Security researchers play a crucial role in fostering trust and confidence in Web3 technologies, paving the way for mass adoption. By participating in this competition, security researchers can gain recognition for their work, raise their profile, and make valuable connections in the Web3 security ecosystem. Ultimately, they can contribute to creating a more secure and equitable community.

Join Circles Audit Competition today and participate in the movement to secure the future of Web3 and decentralized finance. Check the Hats Finance dApp for more information and in-scope contracts.

Stay tuned and check Hats dApp:https://app.hats.finance/audit-competitions