The process for enabling and disabling the HydraDX Circuit Breaker rely on privileged origins and roles: HydraDX-node/pallets/circuit-breaker/src/lib.rs So the potential risks would revolve around permissioning controls of the TechnicalOrigin
Impact
The Circuit Breaker relies on a privileged TechnicalOrigin to set critical limits. However the robustness of this root-of-trust is unclear, risking arbitrary control or constraint bypass.
Granting total governance of constraints to the opaque TechnicalOrigin. With no further decentralization, review, or emergency processes around this role.
Impact
Such compromise could completely bypass circuit breaker assumptions - enabling instability, market manipulation, and severe loss events.
This breaks the security model preventing arbitrary privilege escalation.
Proof of Concept
The elevated permission model indicates a strong reliance on the benevolence of the Technical Origin. Economic and engagement assumptions may degrade without decentralized protections or oversight.
This ensure_origin check grants the TechnicalOrigin full control over setting limits without any further oversight or decentralization.
A weakness emerges in that this origin becomes a central point of failure - if compromised or poorly managed, it could undermine Circuit Breaker protections.
So while the logic meets specifications, supplemental controls around the trusted root TechnicalOrigin role may be warranted.
Simulation Steps
Snapshot valid baseline state
Compromise the TechnicalOrigin account
Adjust limits to extremely high thresholds
Execute attacks now permissible
Arbitrarily drain liquidity
Distort markets via massive swaps
Monitor breach of valid economic assumptions
Pool instability
Severe loss events
Quantify impacts
Loss assessments
Collateral damage analyses
Outcome
This attack path helps quantify the impacts of centralization within the Circuit Breaker protections - including potential privilege escalation vectors.
Tools Used
Manual Review
Recommended Mitigation Steps
Some ways to improve this could be:
Implementing a multi-signature Origin
Adding governance review procedures
Creating emergency processes if alert thresholds breached
Lines of code
https://github.com/code-423n4/2024-02-hydradx/blob/603187123a20e0cb8a7ea85c6a6d718429caad8d/HydraDX-node/pallets/circuit-breaker/src/lib.rs#L324-L356 https://github.com/code-423n4/2024-02-hydradx/blob/603187123a20e0cb8a7ea85c6a6d718429caad8d/HydraDX-node/pallets/circuit-breaker/src/lib.rs#L324-L356 https://github.com/code-423n4/2024-02-hydradx/blob/603187123a20e0cb8a7ea85c6a6d718429caad8d/HydraDX-node/pallets/circuit-breaker/src/lib.rs#L324-L356
Vulnerability details
Description
The process for enabling and disabling the HydraDX Circuit Breaker rely on privileged origins and roles: HydraDX-node/pallets/circuit-breaker/src/lib.rs So the potential risks would revolve around permissioning controls of the
TechnicalOrigin
Impact
The Circuit Breaker relies on a privileged
TechnicalOrigin
to set critical limits. However the robustness of this root-of-trust is unclear, risking arbitrary control or constraint bypass.The issue originates from the limit setting access control: HydraDX-node/pallets/circuit-breaker/src
Granting total governance of constraints to the opaque
TechnicalOrigin
. With no further decentralization, review, or emergency processes around this role.Impact
Such compromise could completely bypass circuit breaker assumptions - enabling instability, market manipulation, and severe loss events.
This breaks the security model preventing arbitrary privilege escalation.
Proof of Concept
The elevated permission model indicates a strong reliance on the benevolence of the Technical Origin. Economic and engagement assumptions may degrade without decentralized protections or oversight.
Specifically, reliance on the privileged
TechnicalOrigin
is encoded here: HydraDX-node/pallets/circuit-breaker/src/lib.rsThis
ensure_origin
check grants theTechnicalOrigin
full control over setting limits without any further oversight or decentralization.A weakness emerges in that this origin becomes a central point of failure - if compromised or poorly managed, it could undermine Circuit Breaker protections.
So while the logic meets specifications, supplemental controls around the trusted root
TechnicalOrigin
role may be warranted.Simulation Steps
Snapshot valid baseline state
Compromise the
TechnicalOrigin
accountExecute attacks now permissible
Monitor breach of valid economic assumptions
Quantify impacts
Outcome
This attack path helps quantify the impacts of centralization within the Circuit Breaker protections - including potential privilege escalation vectors.
Tools Used
Manual Review
Recommended Mitigation Steps
Some ways to improve this could be:
Origin
Assessed type
Governance