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Start with the protocol’s actual security problem
A useful proposal should show that the firm understands what your system does, what could be lost or misused, and where trust enters the design. Give candidates enough information to reason about the protocol rather than asking for a generic smart-contract review.
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Prepare a threat-model brief
Describe the assets and permissions at stake, trust boundaries, assumptions, upgrade and governance paths, and security properties the protocol is meant to preserve. Include architecture diagrams, technical documentation, dependencies, and a record of prior findings and fixes. OWASP’s preparation guidance calls out architecture and threat-model material; Ethereum.org likewise recommends clear documentation of contracts and architecture.
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Fix the scope and code revision before comparing proposals
A report can only speak to the code and components that were actually reviewed. Put the target in writing so you can tell whether the audit covers the version you intend to deploy.
Specify the review boundary
- Name the repository, exact commit hash, contracts, packages, and deployment targets in scope.
- List exclusions, trusted components, and components considered previously reviewed.
- State which protocol functions, attack paths, and security properties the engagement is intended to examine.
- Agree on access to documentation, developers, roles, blockchain interfaces, logs, and test environments.
- Define how newly discovered dependencies and changes to code during the review will be handled.
- Agree on report contents, severity definitions, remediation discussions, and any retest arrangements.
OWASP recommends an open-book review for EVM smart-contract assurance, with access to project documentation, source, developers, blockchain interfaces, logs, and test environments. Its guidance also calls for reports to identify what was reviewed and excluded. Agree on an exact commit hash: OWASP’s implementation guidance says changes during review should be treated as a formal scope amendment. Without that change control, the report may describe code different from the code that ships.
Compare the people and methods—not just the tool names
Ask who will perform the work and how their experience fits your protocol’s language, execution environment, and mechanisms. Request the actual engagement team, how responsibilities are divided, and how findings or review quality are checked. A firm’s past work is useful context, but it does not establish who will be assigned to your engagement.
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Ask how the review will be carried out
Have each firm explain what combination of manual review and suitable testing it proposes for your scope. Depending on the system, that may include static or dynamic analysis, fuzzing, invariant testing, or formal verification. Ask which properties or attack paths each method is meant to examine, and what deliverables will demonstrate that the work was done.
Do not treat an automated-tool inventory as proof of a complete audit. OWASP says automated tools alone are insufficient for its verification process. Ethereum.org describes audits as typically including testing, possibly formal verification, and manual review, and recommends combining automated and manual approaches because their strengths and limits differ. A 2025 protocol-security document hosted by the SEC describes one model in which qualified human review is central and tools support rather than replace it; that document is a particular proposed framework, not a universal legal rule for every DeFi project.
Judge the report by whether it supports action
When public reports are available, inspect them for the clarity and evidence you would want in your own deliverable. Ask candidates to describe how they handle findings whose impact is disputed or whose status changes after remediation.
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- Scope: the reviewed version, components, and exclusions are identifiable.
- Findings: each issue is explained with enough detail to understand, reproduce, and fix it.
- Impact: the report explains how findings are classified. The sources cited here do not establish one industry-wide severity scheme.
- Remediation: guidance is practical, and the report records whether fixes were reviewed if rechecking is part of the engagement.
- Evidence: relevant work papers or artifacts—such as scripts, screenshots, and blockchain logs—support the conclusions where applicable.
- Controls: the report summarizes relevant checks that passed as well as those that failed.
These expectations reflect OWASP’s report guidance, which calls for scope, exclusions, passed and failed controls, remediation advice, and supporting documentation. A polished past report can show how a firm communicates, but it does not prove that the same team or process will be used for a new client.
Choose the review format that fits the work
A firm-led engagement, an audit competition, and a bug bounty are different ways to bring outside researchers to a codebase. Ethereum.org lists both audit services and competition or bounty platforms. Its guidance describes an audit as typically involving testing and manual code review, while a bug bounty offers a reward for responsible disclosure.
Compare how well each format lets you define the target scope and timing, receive and triage findings, coordinate remediation, and handle disclosures. A competition or bounty can complement a scoped audit and ongoing security operations; the available guidance does not establish that one format is always superior or that a bounty replaces every audit.
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Make proposals comparable before weighing cost
Request proposals against the same written scope. Otherwise, a lower quote may simply cover fewer components, less reviewer time, or less follow-through. Ask every candidate to state the people and days allocated, methods, covered components, reporting and remediation support, timing, and fees for scope changes or re-review.
| Comparison area | Questions for each candidate |
|---|---|
| Protocol fit | Has the proposed team worked with the relevant language, chain, and mechanisms? Can it explain the protocol’s trust boundaries and assumptions? |
| Scope | Which commit, contracts, packages, deployments, dependencies, and off-chain components are included or excluded? |
| Methods | What manual review and tool-assisted testing are planned, and which properties or attack paths will they examine? |
| Team and process | Who will do the work, how is review quality checked, and how will access and code changes be handled? |
| Report and remediation | Will findings be reproducible and actionable, and will the report record whether fixes were rechecked? |
| Format and operations | Does a firm engagement, competition, or bounty suit the need, and how will findings be disclosed and handled? |
| Commercial terms | Do the proposals cover comparable scope, people, methods, support, timing, and change costs? |
This is a set of selection questions, not a numerical scorecard. There is no substantiated universal price-quality relationship, standard audit price, or normal engagement length in the sources cited here, so do not infer value from a quote alone.
Use provider directories as a starting list, not a ranking
Ethereum.org’s smart-contract audit resource page lists providers including ConsenSys Diligence, CertiK, Trail of Bits, PeckShield, Quantstamp, OpenZeppelin, Runtime Verification, Hacken, Nethermind, HashEx, Code4rena, CodeHawks, Cyfrin, ImmuneBytes, Oxorio, and Inference. It also lists vulnerability and bug-bounty platforms including Immunefi, HackerOne, HackenProof, Sherlock, and CodeHawks.
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The directory is not an endorsement or comparative scorecard, and it does not establish a provider’s current availability, capacity, or suitability for a particular protocol. Verify specialist fit, the proposed team, scope, and terms directly. The names are candidates for a shortlist, not a substitute for the checks above.
Read audit claims and standards language carefully
Ethereum.org explicitly warns against treating audits as a silver bullet. A 2023 peer-reviewed study helps illustrate why, but its figures describe the authors’ datasets and analysis—not a universal audit success rate.
The study identified 49 vulnerabilities from a combined dataset of academic literature and 45 audit reports. Its effectiveness dataset contained 189 exploited vulnerabilities: 140 from non-audited projects and 43 from audited projects. In a particular analysis of 43 attacked audited projects, reports mentioned the later-exploited vulnerability in 7 instances; auditors had searched for but not detected it in 11; and reports did not mention it in 25. Those sample-bound counts do not establish that audits caused or prevented a particular share of losses. They show why a reader should treat an audit as one layer of risk reduction rather than proof of safety.
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Be equally precise about standards claims. OWASP describes SCSVS as an open standard for EVM smart-contract security requirements. Its assessment guidance says OWASP does not certify vendors, verifiers, or smart contracts. A firm can accurately say that its work used or mapped to SCSVS; that is not official OWASP certification. The project page identifies version 0.0.1, dated September 2024, as its latest stable version at the time stated on that page. Because SCSVS does not cover general application controls such as web interfaces or databases, those components need appropriately scoped additional review.
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