Journal of Computer Technology & Applications

Journal of Computer Technology & Applications Original Research

An Automated Smart Contract Repair Framework for Reentrancy, Integer Overflow, and Denial- of-Service Vulnerabilities

  1. Lipi Begam Department of Information Technology, B.P. Poddar Institute of Management and Technology, Kolkata
  2. Ranjit Haldar Department of Information Technology, B.P. Poddar Institute of Management and Technology, Kolkata
  3. Devmalya Mondal Department of Information Technology, B.P. Poddar Institute of Management and Technology, Kolkata
  4. Sabyasachi Chakroborty Department of Information Technology, B.P. Poddar Institute of Management and Technology, Kolkata

Abstract

This paper introduces a novel static analysis framework designed to bridge a long-standing gap in Ethereum smart contract security: the disconnect between vulnerability detection and automated remediation. Although widely adopted tools such as Slither and Oyente are highly effective at identifying security weaknesses, they stop short of providing actionable fixes. As a result, developers manually patch vulnerabilities, a process that is not only time-consuming but also susceptible to human error and inconsistent implementation. Our proposed solution directly addresses this limitation by integrating vulnerability detection with lightweight, automated repair mechanisms. The framework employs a regex-based static analyzer that prioritizes efficiency and practicality over heavyweight program analysis techniques. It introduces three core innovations. First, it automatically injects noReentrant modifiers into vulnerable functions, effectively preventing reentrancy attacks without altering business logic. Second, it performs context-aware wrapping of arithmetic operations inside unchecked{} blocks, reducing the risk of integer overflow and underflow issues while maintaining Solidity compiler compatibility. Third, it systematically annotates loops containing external calls to highlight potential denial-of-service (DoS) risks, improving code readability and auditability. To evaluate effectiveness, the tool was tested on three purpose-built vulnerable contracts: ReentrancyDemo.sol, IntegerBugDemo.sol, and DoSDemo.sol. The results show 100% detection accuracy with zero false positives. In addition, the analyzer outperforms Oyente’s symbolic execution approach by a factor of three to five in execution speed, while achieving precision comparable to Slither. By avoiding abstract syntax tree construction and leveraging a modular, regex-driven design, the framework consistently analyzes 200–300 line contracts in under one second, making it both scalable and developer-friendly.

Keywords

  • Automated vulnerability remediation
  • Static analysis
  • blockchain security tools
  • denial-of-service protection
  • ethereum
  • integer overflow prevention
  • reentrancy detection
  • regex-based analysis
  • smart contract security
  • solidity

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