Mento Audit Competition - Rewards up to $12.8K in USDC

Starting 16 of January, 2024, at 15:00 GMT to 30 of January, 2024, at 15:00 GMT

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

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

About the Competition

Starting 16 of January, a new vault will open in the Hats dApp — “Mento audit competition”.
Participants can check the contracts in scope and start searching for bugs.

Intro to the project

Mento is a decentralized and transparent EVM compatible protocol that enables the creation of stable value digital assets, such as assets that track the value of fiat currencies (commonly referred to as “stablecoins”). The goal of Mento is to support the real-world adoption of digital currencies for users around the world. Mento is currently live on the Celo blockchain, supporting a growing portfolio of decentralized stablecoins including the Celo Dollar (cUSD), Celo Euro (cEUR), Celo Brazilian Real (cReal), CFA Franc (eXOF), Celo Kenya Shilling (cKES), Philippine Peso (PUSO) and Celo Colombian Peso (cCOP), with more coming soon. All Mento assets are fully collateralized with a diversified portfolio of exogenous crypto assets.

[Sloc/Loc]
The competition code language is Solidity and the SLOC estimation for this competition is ~650 SLOC.

[Chain]
Example: To reduce transaction costs, we’re shifting our audits vault to Layer 2 networks. Specifically, this competition is hosted on Arbitrum for more efficient fee management.

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 ~$16K in USDC, making the available prize pool ~$12.8K 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, Bonus

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: 250 USDC (equals 1 point)
• Medium Severity: 2500 USDC (equals 10 points)
• High Severity: 5000 USDC (equals 20 points)
• Bonus: 500 USDC 2 points

*For simplicity, there is a relation between the points and the cap. If the cap is 250 USDC it equals to the allocation of 1.95% from the max rewards budget .

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:

• 170 Low Severity: 170 points
• 1 Medium Severity: 10 points
• 1 High Severity: 20 points

Total points: 200

In this scenario:

• Value of 1 Point = 16000 USDC/200 Total points = 64 USDC
  The rewards for this example will be as follows:
• Low (170 points): $64 each
• Medium (10 points): $640 in total.
• High (20 points): $1280 in total.

Example #2

• 10 Low Severity: 10 points
• 1 Medium: 10 points

Total points: 20

In this scenario:

• Value of 1 Point = 12800 USDC/22 Total points = 581.81USDC
  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): $581.81 each from the cap.
  Reward will be $250 per each, $2500 in total.
• Medium (10 points): $5818.18 from the cap.
  The reward will be $2500 in total.

Severities

High Severity

Issues that will qualify for this bracket will be assigned 20 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 10 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.

Bonus:

Bonus Points: Submissions that address vulnerabilities or issues within the designed repository ( Will be public at the beginning of the competition ) will be eligible for a fixed 2 bonus points, awarded on top of the base score for the severity of the finding. These bonus points are intended to encourage focused attention on the above repository, recognizing its critical importance to the protocol.

Criteria for Bonus Points:

• The issue must be a valid submission, aka approved by the sponsors, under the existing severity brackets (High, Medium, or Low).
• The finding must directly pertain to code, functionality, or dependencies within the repository.

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 “Mento 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 Jan 16th at 15:00 GMT and ends on Jan 30th 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 ~$12.8K USDC 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[Mento] 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