Client Overview
A decentralized stablecoin platform working on Ethereum turned to Halborn for a full security review of its smart contracts. These contracts were integral to a unique liquidity model enabling collateralized loans.
Security Challenges
With users depending on this system to manage and secure value on-chain, the platform sought assurance that its infrastructure was free from vulnerabilities that could impact user trust or operational continuity.
Halborn was asked to assess these core areas of the platform:
Reward distribution mechanism
Governance risks
Protection of user collateral
Halborn’s Solutions
Halborn conducted a thorough review of the platform’s smart contracts, with a combination of manual and automated tools. Throughout the process, the team leveraged Halborn’s proprietary platform to communicate and document findings in real time.
The Security Solutions Center, a central piece to the firm’s services, enabled efficient, secure, transparent and timely communication between teams, positively impacting the outcome of the engagement.
Engineers at Halborn also provided advice on specific issues, as they were uncovered.
Impact and Outcomes
The audit revealed two critical issues:
A reentrancy vulnerability within the platform’s reward distribution mechanism, which posed the risk of an ETH drain if exploited.
An uninitialized admin address, which could have created a scenario where governance functions were permanently locked and unable to execute upgrades or changes.
Both issues had the potential to severely disrupt the platform’s functionality and damage user confidence. These high-risk findings were part of a broader set of over 40 total vulnerabilities identified during the engagement, further underscoring the need for deep and ongoing assessments in DeFi systems.
During the smart contract review, the team:
Guided the closure of the reentrancy flaw to prevent possible recursive exploits
Worked with the client to properly initialize the admin key, restoring full control over governance and upgrade processes
Halborn’s findings were accompanied by actionable recommendations, allowing the client to rapidly remediate threats without delaying its development roadmap.
This enabled the improvement of the platform's security posture::
User collateral remained protected from potential exploit paths
Upgrade capabilities were secured through governance remediation
The platform significantly reduced its attack surface and gained stronger confidence from its user base and internal teams
By uncovering and helping resolve two high-impact vulnerabilities, Halborn enabled the DeFi stablecoin platform to fortify its core systems and protect its users. The audit not only addressed immediate risks but also positioned the project for more secure and scalable growth.
