According to CoinDesk, blockchain security platform Ironblocks has introduced a new tool for DeFi developers. The tool, named 'Firewall', is designed to enhance the security of smart contracts. It is a free service that allows developers to implement various security 'policies' to monitor transactions on their decentralized finance protocols for suspicious activities. The aim is to prevent protocol hacks and heists before they occur.
The Firewall tool sits within the smart contracts processing protocols' transactions. Developers can choose from a range of policies that scrutinize the flow for suspicious patterns and other signs of a potential hack. The tool does not halt or pause the application, but stops the specific transaction that may pose a threat to the application.
At its launch, the Firewall service is being used by three major users: the zkEVM chain Linea, AltLayer, and the layer-2 network Kinto. More users are expected to join in the future. The service is free to use and is not intended to be a direct source of revenue for Ironblocks. Instead, it serves as a feeder for the company's other crypto cyber defense products, including the upcoming 'Venn Security Network'.
The Firewall toolkit could represent a significant advancement in security for an ecosystem where code immutability makes incremental updates difficult to implement on the go. Developers have the flexibility to add more policies to their code after the fact and remove them as well. The method of implementing these changes is left to the discretion of the developers. They could potentially delegate the decisions to their projects' token-holding governance communities, to a wallet controlled by multiple parties, or to the DAO.
The primary objective of the Firewall tool is to prevent hacks before they occur. As Ironblocks' CEO Or Dadosh stated, once a system is hacked, in most cases, it's too late to recover. The Firewall tool is designed to prevent such scenarios.
