# A Comprehensive Study of Exploitable Patterns in Smart Contracts: From Vulnerability to Defense

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.21480 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.21480/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 13 of its 28 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 30 Apr 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 13 of 13)

- [Unveiling Wash Trading in Popular NFT Markets](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.10361/) (2024)
- [StateGuard: Detecting State Derailment Defects in Decentralized Exchange Smart Contract](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.09181/) (2024)
- [SCALM: Detecting Bad Practices in Smart Contracts Through LLMs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.04347/) (2025)
- [Interaction-Aware Vulnerability Detection in Smart Contract Bytecodes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.20712/) (2024)
- [Malicious Code Detection in Smart Contracts via Opcode Vectorization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.12720/) (2025)
- [CLUE: Towards Discovering Locked Cryptocurrencies in Ethereum](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.01370/) (2020)
- [GasTrace: Detecting Sandwich Attack Malicious Accounts in Ethereum](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.19971/) (2024)
- [Smart Contracts in the Real World: A Statistical Exploration of External Data Dependencies](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.13253/) (2024)
- [SoK: Security Analysis of Blockchain-based Cryptocurrency](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.22156/) (2025)
- [SmartBugBert: BERT-Enhanced Vulnerability Detection for Smart Contract Bytecode](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.05002/) (2025)
- [Enhancing Smart Contract Vulnerability Detection in DApps Leveraging Fine-Tuned LLM](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.05006/) (2025)
- [SCLA: Automated Smart Contract Summarization via LLMs and Control Flow Prompt](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.04863/) (2024)
- [Characterizing the Solana NFT Ecosystem](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.10879/) (2024)

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [RAGas: Retrieval-Augmented Gas Optimization for Smart Contracts with Continuous Knowledge Integration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.15857/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

With the rapid advancement of blockchain technology, smart contracts have enabled the implementation of increasingly complex functionalities. However, ensuring the security of smart contracts remains a persistent challenge across the stages of development, compilation, and execution. Vulnerabilities within smart contracts not only undermine the security of individual applications but also pose significant risks to the broader blockchain ecosystem, as demonstrated by the growing frequency of attacks since 2016, resulting in substantial financial losses. This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of key security risks in Ethereum smart contracts, specifically those written in Solidity and executed on the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). We focus on two prevalent and critical vulnerability types (reentrancy and integer overflow) by examining their underlying mechanisms, replicating attack scenarios, and assessing effective countermeasures.