HomeEIPsNewsletter
EIPsERC-5437
ERC-5437

Security Contact Interface

An interface for security notice using asymmetric encryption
StagnantStandards Track: ERC
Created: 2022-08-09
Requires: EIP-165
Zainan Zhou (@xinbenlv)
Discussions ForumOriginal Proposal LinkEdit
1 min read

The ERC-5437 proposal suggests a standardized way for smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain to include contact information for security concerns. This includes an email address and/or public key for secure communication. The proposal also recommends that this information be kept up-to-date and that encryption keys be rotated regularly. The goal of this proposal is to improve security practices for smart contracts and make it easier for individuals to report security concerns to the appropriate parties. It is recommended that new versions of smart contracts adopt this proposal in addition to any legacy approaches.

Video
Anyone may contribute to propose contents.
Go propose
Original

Abstract

An interface for security notice using asymmetric encryption. The interface exposes a asymmetric encryption key and a destination of delivery.

Motivation

Currently there is no consistent way to specify an official channel for security researchers to report security issues to smart contract maintainers.

Specification

The key words “MUST”, “MUST NOT”, “REQUIRED”, “SHALL”, “SHALL NOT”, “SHOULD”, “SHOULD NOT”, “RECOMMENDED”, “MAY”, and “OPTIONAL” in this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119.

interface IEIP5437 { /// REQUIRED function getSecurityContact(uint8 type, bytes memory data) public view returns ( uint8 type, bytes memory publicKey, bytes memory extraData ); /// OPTIONAL // TODO consider remove if not needed before finalized function setSecurityContact( uint8 type, bytes memory publicKey, bytes memory extraData) public; event SecurityContactChanged(uint8 type, bytes memory publicKeyForEncryption, bytes memory extraData); /// OPTIONAL function securityNotify(uint8 type, bytes memory data) public payable; /// OPTIONAL event OnSecurityNotification(uint8 type, bytes memory sourceData, uint256 value); /// OPTIONAL // TODO consider to make it a separate EIP function bountyPolicy(uint256 id) public view returns(string, bytes memory extraData); }
  1. Compliant interfaces MUST implement the getSecurityContact method.

type is a one byte data with valid range of [0x10, 0x7f]. The ranges of [0x00, 0x0f] and [0x80, 0xff] are reserved for future extension.

The type indicates the format of the publicKey and extraData in the following way


TypeEncryption schemeextraData
0x10GnuPG - RSA/3072Email address(es) encoded in format of RFC 2822

A new version of this table can be proposed by future EIPs by specifying a new type number.

  1. The publicKey returned from getSecurityContact MUST follow the encryption scheme specified in the table above.

The following is an example of a publicKey using RSA/3072 generated via GnuPG in an RFC 20 ASCII-encoding of the public key string:

-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- mQGNBGLzM2YBDADnCxAW/A0idvKNeQ6s/iYUeIIE+2mWmHcBGqLi0zrfz7pKWI+D m6Hek51sg2c7ZlswPEp8KqANrj/CV1stXHF+KAZtYeFiAqpIZl1wtB6QgKYWGsJf sXjBU3duLzLut2yvTfbEZsWAvrEaDjlXywdpboorHvfTE2vOvI6iGcjdh7PW7W7g IGzlL6ukLGG7y9FUO2dSMjCR/tWMLCupnDDLN2cUHnfEnHZ34FMd61NxcHLC7cIk P8xkFt8GCxURniTjqI5HAB8bGfR34kflVpr2+iKD5e+vQxcWK7vB443nruVf8osn udDF8Z6mgl7bKBbGyYH58QsVlmZ8g3E4YaMKjpwOzEK3V2R8Yh4ETdr670ZCRrIz QWVkibGgmQ3J/9RYps5Hfqpj4wV60Bsh1xUIJEIAs3ubMt7Z5JYFeze7VlXGlwot P+SnAfKzlZT4CDEl2LEEDrbpnpOEdp0x9hYsEaXTxBGSpTDaxP2MyhW3u6pYeehG oD0UVTLjWgU+6akAEQEAAbQjc29tZXJlYWxuYW1lIDxncGcubG9jYWwuZ2VuQHp6 bi5pbT6JAdQEEwEIAD4WIQTDk/9jzRZ+lU2cY8rSVJNbud1lrQUCYvMzZgIbAwUJ EswDAAULCQgHAgYVCgkICwIEFgIDAQIeAQIXgAAKCRDSVJNbud1lraulDACqFbQg e9hfoK17UcPVz/u4ZnwmFd9zFAWSYkGqrK9XMvz0R8pr7Y3Dp5hfvaptqID/lHhA 2oPEZ1ViIYDBcqG9WoWjCOYNoIosEAczrvf8YtUC2MHI+5DdYHtST74jDLuWMw3U AbBXHds3KcRY5/j01kqqi4uwsMBCYyH3Jl3IwjKgy0KDBbuQakvaHPmNnt81ayvZ ucdsNB9n/JMDxUWNCcySR+cllW4mk68pdiuK5qw0JMaoUjHFoWsgMTbFSlAV/lre qu8MnrLSs5iPvvaJ3uDOuYROB2FsbvWxayfAAVS1iZf2vQFBJPnDwDdYoPNYMjLp s2SfU02MVRGp3wanbtvM52uP42SLLNjBqUvJV03/QwfxCRejgAJOBn+iaOxP9NOe qfQdKzYPbA9FohdkL9991n21XBZcZzAgF9RyU9IZAPAnwZyex1zfzJsUp/HrjhP8 Ljs8MIcjIlmpLk66TmJte4dN5eML1bpohmfMX8k0ILESLSUhxEg1JBNYIDK5AY0E YvMzZgEMALnIkONpqCkV+yaP8Tb8TBjmM+3TioJQROViINUQZh6lZM3/M+DPxAWZ r0MIh1a3+o+ThlZ70tlS67w3Sjd62sWAFzALzW4F+gTqjBTh6LURDqDV8OXUrggA SKK222aDP+Fr21h/TtPLeyDvcgm8Xvi4Cy7Jmf5CfT5jDio7a+FyFBNlTFSVqzLM TgFOkUFBg8kJKvDjWIrS2fcTkELwZ8+IlQ52YbrXwbDar843x1fRmsY+x9nnuGuP RYn1U4Jbptu2pEkG5q94jzUzTkGZHCzBJY7a8mtvS0mLqIE0Se1p+HFLY76Rma/F HB6J4JNOTzBZ0/1FVvUOcMkjuZ2dX81qoCZ8NP6eafzKvNYZrGa5NJnjWO1ag5jQ D8qHuOwxs8Fy9evmkwAVl51evLFNT532I4LK0zHSbF8MccZjpEFMSKwalKJn02Ml yTd+ljYLf8SKMOLVps8kc4VyMR1lz0PwSpKDFOmkC1LRURpM7UTtCK+/RFg1OLyQ SKBmdI37KQARAQABiQG8BBgBCAAmFiEEw5P/Y80WfpVNnGPK0lSTW7ndZa0FAmLz M2YCGwwFCRLMAwAACgkQ0lSTW7ndZa2oFgv8DAxHtRZchTvjxtdLhQEUSHt80JCQ zgHd7OUI9EU3K+oDj9AKtKZF1fqMlQoOskgBsLy/xpWwyhatv2ONLtHSjYDkZ7qs jsXshqpuvJ3X00Yn9PXG1Z1jKl7rzy2/0DnQ8aFP+gktfu2Oat4uIu4YSqRsVW/Z sbdTsW3T4E6Uf0qUKDf49mK3Y2nhTwY0YZqJnuQkSuUvpuM5a/4zSoaIRz+vSNjX MoXUIK/f8UnWABPm90OCptTMTzXCC1UXEHTNm6iBJThFiq3GeLZH+GnIola5KLO1 +YbsFEchLfLZ27pWGfIbyppvsuQmrHef+J3g6sXybOWDHVYr3Za1fzxQVIbwoIEe ndKG0bu7ZAi2b/c8uH/wHT5IvtfzHLeSTjDqG8UyLTnaDxHQZIE9JIzWSQ1DSoNC YrU7CQtL+/HRpiGFHfClaXln8VWkjnUvp+Fg1ZPtE1t/SKddZ7m29Hd9nzUc0OQW MOA+HDqgA3a9kWbQKSloORq4unft1eu/FCra =O6Bf -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
  1. IF setSecurityContact is implemented and a call to it has succeeded in setting a new security contact, an event SecurityContactChanged MUST be emitted with the identical passed-in-parameters of setSecurityContact

  2. It's also RECOMMENDED that an on-chain security notify method securityNotify to implemented to receive security notice onchain. If it's implemented and a call has succeeded, it MUST emit an OnSecurityNotification with identical pass-in-parameter data.

  3. Compliant interfaces MUST implement EIP-165.

  1. It's recommended to set a bounty policy via bountyPolicy method. The id = 0 is preserved for a full overview, while other digits are used for different individual bounty policies. The returned string will be URI to content of bounty policies. No particular format of bounty policy is specified.

Rationale

  1. For simplicity, this EIP specifies a simple GPG scheme with a given encryption scheme and uses email addresses as a contact method. It's possible that future EIPs will specify new encryption schemes or delivery methods.
  2. This EIP adds an optional method, setSecurityContact, to set the security contact, because it might change due to circumstances such as the expiration of the cryptographic keys.
  3. This EIP explicitly marks securityNotify as payable, in order to allow implementers to set a staking amount to report a security vulnerability.
  4. This EIP allows for future expansion by adding the bountyPolicy the extraData fields. Additional values of these fields may be added in future EIPs.

Backwards Compatibility

Currently, existing solutions such as OpenZeppelin use plaintext in source code

/// @custom:security-contact some-user@some-domain.com

It's recommend that new versions of smart contracts adopt this EIP in addition to the legacy @custom:security-contact approach.

Security Considerations

Implementors should properly follow security practices required by the encryption scheme to ensure the security of the chosen communication channel. Some best practices are as follows:

  1. Keep security contact information up-to-date;
  2. Rotate encryption keys in the period recommended by best practice;
  3. Regularly monitor the channel to receive notices in a timely manner.

Copyright and related rights waived via CC0.

Further reading
Anyone may contribute to propose contents.
Go propose
Adopted by projects
Anyone may contribute to propose contents.
Go propose

Not miss a beat of EIPs' update?

Subscribe EIPs Fun to receive the latest updates of EIPs Good for Buidlers to follow up.

View all
Serve Ethereum Builders, Scale the Community.
Resources
GitHub
Supported by