Axelar Network

Submit a Bug
10 March 2022
Live since
Yes
KYC required
$2,250,000
Maximum bounty
25 January 2024
Last updated

Program Overview

Axelar Network is a decentralized interoperability network connecting all blockchains, assets and apps through a universal set of protocols and APIs.

For more information about Axelar Network, please visit https://axelar.network/.

Rewards by Threat Level

Rewards are distributed according to the impact of the vulnerability based on the Immunefi Vulnerability Severity Classification System V2.2. This is a simplified 5-level scale, with separate scales for websites/apps, smart contracts, and blockchains/DLTs, focusing on the impact of the vulnerability reported.

All Critical Blockchain/DLT and Smart Contract bug reports require a PoC to be eligible for a reward. Explanations and statements are not accepted as PoC and code is required.

In addition to Immunefi’s Vulnerability Severity Classification System, Axelar Network classifies the following vulnerabilities as follows. In case of discrepancy, the one below will be followed.

Critical

  • Loss of funds of over or equal to $500,000

High

  • Vulnerabilities that result in loss of funds of less than $500,000

Medium

  • Vulnerabilities that result in loss of funds of less than $50,000

Low

  • Vulnerabilities that result in loss of funds of less than $10,000

Any vulnerabilities discussed within the github issues below are considered vulnerabilities already known to Axelar, and will not be eligible for a reward:

Critical blockchain/ smart contract vulnerabilities are capped at 10% of economic damage, primarily taking into consideration funds at risk, but also PR and branding aspects, at the discretion of the team. There is no minimum reward for Critical smart contract vulnerabilities.

Bug reports that are classified as High will be rewarded USD 10 000 and up to USD 50 000 at the Axelar team’s discretion. High impact rewards for the project bug bounty program are scaled based on an internally established team criteria, taking into account the exploitability of the bug, the impact it causes, and the likelihood of the vulnerability presenting itself, which is especially factored in with bug reports requiring multiple conditions to be met that are currently not in-place. However, there is a minimum reward of USD 10 000 for High severity level, rewards will be provided at the determined fair value by the team depending on these conditions, assuming that the bug report is in-scope of the bug bounty program. Only impacts that cause severe network disruption or a loss of funds of over or equal to $2M is considered as Critical

Axelar Network requires KYC to be done for all bug bounty hunters submitting a report and wanting a reward. We use a service provider, Jumio, to collect this information and will send you a link to the KYC application if your report is deemed eligible for bounties. The information needed is

  • A piece of government issued photo ID such as passport or driver’s license
  • A live webcam facial recognition scan to match biometrics with submitted photo ID

The collection of this information will be done by the project team.

Payouts are handled by the Axelar Network team directly and are denominated in USD. However, payouts are done in USDC.

Blockchain/DLT

Critical
Level
Up to USD $2,250,000
Payout
PoC Required
High
Level
USD $10,000 to USD $50,000
Payout
Medium
Level
USD $5,000
Payout
Low
Level
USD $1,000
Payout

Smart Contract

Critical
Level
Up to USD $2,250,000
Payout
PoC Required
High
Level
USD $10,000 to USD $50,000
Payout
Medium
Level
USD $5,000
Payout
Low
Level
USD $1,000
Payout

Assets in scope

Only those contracts from the repos in the Assets in Scope table are considered as in-scope of the bug bounty program. In tofn, the only thing in scope is src/ecdsa/mod.rs and it’s project dependencies, excluding third-party dependencies. Only tofnd pieces relating to the mod.rs file in tofn is in scope. For the Axelar Gateway contracts, although only the proxy contracts are only listed as in-scope, the respective implementation contracts are also counted in scope. When reporting a bug, please make sure to select the relevant proxy smart contract as the target.

Though only the proxy contracts are listed as in-scope, current implementation and any further updates to the implementation contracts are considered in scope. When reporting a bug, please make sure to select the relevant proxy smart contract as the target.

Impacts in scope

Only the following impacts are accepted within this bug bounty program. All other impacts are not considered as in-scope, even if they affect something in the assets in scope table.

Blockchain/DLT

  • Network not being able to confirm new transactions (Total network shutdown)
    Critical
    Impact
  • Unintended permanent chain split requiring hard fork (Network partition requiring hard fork)
    Critical
    Impact
  • Direct loss of funds
    Critical
    Impact
  • Permanent freezing of funds (fix requires hardfork)
    Critical
    Impact
  • Any governance voting result manipulation
    Critical
    Impact
  • Non-determinism in the network and consensus failure
    Critical
    Impact
  • Cryptographic vulnerabilities
    Critical
    Impact
  • Vulnerabilities related to validator voting manipulation on external chain events
    Critical
    Impact
  • Unintended chain split (Network partition)
    High
    Impact
  • Transient consensus failures
    High
    Impact
  • Privilege escalation
    High
    Impact
  • Theft or freezing of inflation rewards
    High
    Impact
  • High compute consumption by validator nodes
    Medium
    Impact
  • Attacks against light clients
    Medium
    Impact
  • DoS of greater than 30% of validator or miner nodes and does not shut down the network
    Medium
    Impact
  • Privilege Escalation causing DoS
    Medium
    Impact
  • DoS of greater than 10% but less than 30% of validator nodes and does not shut down the network
    Low
    Impact
  • Significant underpricing of transaction fees relative to computation time
    Low
    Impact

Smart Contract

  • Direct theft of any user funds, whether at-rest or in-motion
    Critical
    Impact
  • Permanent freezing of funds
    Critical
    Impact
  • Insolvency
    Critical
    Impact
  • Unauthorized mint/burn/transfer of wrapped assets
    Critical
    Impact
  • Privilege escalation
    Critical
    Impact
  • Temporary freezing of funds for a minimum of 1 hour
    High
    Impact
  • Invalid command execution
    High
    Impact
  • Smart contract unable to operate due to lack of funds
    Medium
    Impact
  • Block stuffing for profit
    Medium
    Impact
  • Griefing (e.g. no profit motive for an attacker, but damage to the users or the protocol)
    Medium
    Impact
  • Theft of gas
    Medium
    Impact
  • Unbounded gas consumption
    Medium
    Impact
  • Smart contract fails to deliver promised returns, but doesn’t lose value
    Low
    Impact

Out of Scope & Rules

The following vulnerabilities are excluded from the rewards for this bug bounty program:

  • Attacks that the reporter has already exploited themselves, leading to damage
  • Attacks requiring access to leaked keys/credentials
  • Attacks requiring access to privileged addresses (governance, strategist)

Smart Contracts and Blockchain

  • Incorrect data supplied by third party oracles
    • Not to exclude oracle manipulation/flash loan attacks
  • Basic economic governance attacks (e.g. 51% attack)
  • Lack of liquidity
  • Best practice critiques
  • Sybil attacks
  • Centralization risks
  • Third party dependencies, especially Cosmos SDK dependencies
  • In the tofn repository, the only thing in scope is src/ecdsa/mod.rs and it’s project dependencies, excluding third-party dependencies
  • In the tofnd repository, the only thing in scope is parts related to src/ecdsa/mod.rs in tofn repository

The following activities are prohibited by this bug bounty program:

  • Any testing with mainnet or public testnet contracts; all testing should be done on private testnets
  • Any testing with pricing oracles or third party smart contracts
  • Attempting phishing or other social engineering attacks against our employees and/or customers
  • Any testing with third party systems and applications (e.g. browser extensions) as well as websites (e.g. SSO providers, advertising networks)
  • Any denial of service attacks
  • Automated testing of services that generates significant amounts of traffic
  • Public disclosure of an unpatched vulnerability in an embargoed bounty