The Most Effective Ways To Prevent Turing Completeness Attack

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INTRODUCTION

Turing completeness attack can simply be defined or said to be a kind of attack on the blockchain and it's different networks that takes advantage of the turing completeness in the Smart contracts on the blockchain and as a result leading to, and having different consequences like wasting resources, causing a denial of service and ultimately compromising the security of the network.

What is turing completeness in a blockchain's smart contract? Well it can simply be defined as the ability of smart contracts to be very flexible and programmable owing to the fact that their programming language if given the adequate time and resources is able to perform any computation.

Attackers take advantage of this ability of turing completeness that is why in this post, I have decided to discuss and explain some of the most effective measures to take and apply to increase the security of the blockchains network against this attack and as a result reduce the chances of a successful attack.

• IMPLEMENTING FORMAL VERIFICATION

The algorithms of smart contracts in blockchain networks have turing completeness and are highly programmable and flexible and as a result of this flexibility the algorithm is not able to detect errors in its programming or coding rather it adapts to it as a result leaving vulnerabilities in the network which attackers can take advantage of.

Therefore, to address this issue we need another program or mechanism whose sole purpose is to scan the algorithms, programming language or codes of the smart contracts to ensure that it is free from any error and that such mechanism is known as formal verification, it basically involves the use of mathematical methods to prove whether the Smart contract program is in accordance to specifications.

• IMPLEMENTING SAFE PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE

Implementing formal verification as a means to fight against turing completeness attack can be effective, but it can only be implemented after programming to cross check whether or not there is error however, there is another more effective method of mitigating turing completeness attack, which simply by using a programming language with inbuilt error detector or auto correct just like the ones on our phone.

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There exists that programming language that have a kind of error detector, it is not necessarily auto correct but it's features and design allows it to operate in a kind of way that it prevents the programmer from writing imperfect codes or one with error of any kind, as a result making a good tool in the fight against turing completeness attack, this programming language is known as safe programming language.

• IMPLEMENTING GAS LIMITS AND PRICING MECHANISMS

Implementation of gas limits and pricing mechanisms, is one of the most effective measures to take in mitigating turing completeness attack on blockchain networks, gas in this context serve as unit that measures the computational effort required to execute or process a particular transaction, while pricing mechanism is what determines the amount of gas for each transaction.

One of the way in which attackers exploit the turing completeness of smart contracts on blockchain networks is by inputing very complex computations that causes a kind of unending order or transaction loop in the network and as a result leads to a wastage of resources in processing the looping transaction.

Therefore, by ensuring that there is a price to pay, gas for every transaction or computation depending on it's complexity and amount of computational resources required to process it and then by setting a gas limit on each transaction ensures that complex transactions that cause unending loops once it reaches its limit will automatically be dumped by the network.

• IMPLEMENTING STATIC ANALYSIS TOOLS

Turing completeness attack can further be mitigated by implementing certain tools known as static analysis tools which basically have the responsibility of analyzing smart contracts just before they are being implemented or applied into a blockchain network hence, providing information that determines whether to continue with the application or work on the smart contract.

The static analysis tools operate in such a way that they are able to identify and detect any kind of imperfections or vulnerabilities in the smart contract further providing reports detailing the amount of gas consumed in the network in the quest to process and execute transaction as well as an intentionally triggered computational loop.

As a result keeping the blockchain network safe from any annomaly or vulnerability that is likely to be taken advantage of by attackers to facilitate a turing completeness attack against the blockchain networks.

CONCLUSION

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In conclusion, making the research for this post was my first time hearing about turing completeness attack on the blockchain network but none the less I believe I did justice to this post and I hope you all enjoy reading and thank you for reading.

The measures to take to fight against turing completeness attack just to recap includes the following; implementing safe programming language, implementing formal verification, implementing static analysis tools and implementing gas limits and pricing mechanisms.