Remediation Priorities

Prioritize and address security findings effectively.

Overview

When BlockSecOps identifies vulnerabilities, prioritizing fixes is crucial. This guide helps you focus on what matters most.

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Priority Framework

Severity + Exploitability Matrix

	Easy to Exploit	Hard to Exploit
High Impact	Fix Immediately	Fix Soon
Low Impact	Fix Soon	Fix Later

Priority Levels

Priority	Action	Timeframe
P0	Stop everything, fix now	Hours
P1	Fix before next deploy	Days
P2	Fix in current sprint	1-2 weeks
P3	Backlog	As time allows

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Priority by Severity

Critical (P0)

Always fix immediately.

Examples:

• Reentrancy in withdrawal functions
• Missing access control on admin functions
• Arbitrary external calls
• Upgrade mechanism vulnerabilities

Actions:

1. Pause affected functionality if possible
2. Develop and test fix
3. Get emergency security review
4. Deploy fix
5. Post-mortem

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High (P1)

Fix before any production deployment.

Examples:

• Integer overflow in calculations
• Unchecked return values on transfers
• Insecure randomness
• Privilege escalation paths

Actions:

1. Assess exploitation difficulty
2. Prioritize in current sprint
3. Implement and test fix
4. Security review before merge
5. Deploy with standard process

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Medium (P2)

Plan fix in near-term sprints.

Examples:

• Front-running opportunities
• Timestamp dependence
• Missing input validation
• Suboptimal access patterns

Actions:

1. Add to sprint backlog
2. Group with related fixes
3. Standard development process
4. Deploy in regular release

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Low (P3)

Address as time permits.

Examples:

• Floating pragma
• Missing events
• Gas optimizations
• Code style issues

Actions:

1. Add to tech debt backlog
2. Address during refactoring
3. Include in code cleanup sprints
4. Don't delay releases for these

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Contextual Factors

Increase Priority When:

Factor	Priority Adjustment
Funds at risk	+2 levels
Already deployed	+1 level
Easy to exploit	+1 level
Similar exploit happened elsewhere	+1 level
High TVL contract	+1 level

Decrease Priority When:

Factor	Priority Adjustment
Not yet deployed	-1 level
Requires complex setup	-1 level
Low TVL	-1 level
Admin-only function	-1 level

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Triage Decision Tree

Is it Critical severity?
├─ Yes → P0: Fix immediately
└─ No → Is it High severity?
         ├─ Yes → Are funds at direct risk?
         │        ├─ Yes → P0: Fix immediately
         │        └─ No → P1: Fix before deploy
         └─ No → Is it Medium severity?
                  ├─ Yes → Is it easy to exploit?
                  │        ├─ Yes → P1: Fix before deploy
                  │        └─ No → P2: Fix in sprint
                  └─ No → P3: Backlog

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False Positive Handling

When to Mark as False Positive

• Scanner misunderstood code intent
• External context makes it unexploitable
• Intentional design decision
• Already mitigated elsewhere

Documentation Required

Always document why:

**False Positive Justification**

Finding: Reentrancy in withdraw()
Reason: Function is protected by nonReentrant modifier
        inherited from ReentrancyGuard.sol

Reviewed by: [email protected]
Date: 2025-01-15

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Accepted Risk Handling

When to Accept Risk

• Fix would require major architecture change
• Risk is minimal compared to fix cost
• Mitigation exists outside contract
• Business decision with informed stakeholder

Documentation Required

**Accepted Risk Documentation**

Finding: Front-running in swap()
Severity: Medium

Risk Assessment:
- Maximum loss per transaction: <$100
- Mitigation: Slippage protection exists

Business Decision:
- Fix would delay launch by 2 weeks
- Risk accepted by: CTO, Security Lead
- Review date: 2025-06-01

Monitoring:
- Alert on large slippage events
- Monthly risk review

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Remediation Workflow

1. Triage (Day 0)

• Review finding
• Verify it's valid
• Assess exploitability
• Assign priority
• Assign owner

2. Analysis (Day 1)

• Understand root cause
• Identify fix approach
• Assess fix complexity
• Check for related issues

3. Fix Development (Days 1-3)

• Implement fix
• Add regression test
• Self-review
• Update documentation

4. Review (Days 3-4)

• Peer code review
• Security review for Critical/High
• Run BlockSecOps scan on fix

5. Deployment (Day 5)

• Deploy to staging
• Integration testing
• Deploy to production
• Verify fix

6. Closure

• Mark finding as resolved
• Document resolution
• Update runbook if needed

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Batch Remediation

Grouping Related Fixes

When you have multiple findings, group by:

1. Same Root Cause

- Missing access control in setFee()
- Missing access control in setAdmin()
- Missing access control in pause()
→ Fix all with AccessControl pattern

2. Same Contract

- Multiple issues in Token.sol
→ Fix together, single review cycle

3. Same Pattern

- Unchecked returns in multiple contracts
→ Apply SafeERC20 pattern across codebase

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Communication

Status Updates

Keep stakeholders informed:

## Security Remediation Status - Week of Jan 15

**Summary:**
- Critical: 0 open (0 new, 0 fixed)
- High: 2 open (1 new, 3 fixed)
- Medium: 8 open (2 new, 5 fixed)

**In Progress:**
1. Token.sol - Reentrancy fix (P1, ETA: Jan 18)
2. Vault.sol - Access control (P1, ETA: Jan 17)

**Blocked:**
None

**Next Steps:**
- Complete High priority fixes by Jan 20
- Begin Medium priority sprint Jan 21

Escalation Path

Priority	Notify	Escalate To
P0	Security team, CTO	Executive team
P1	Security team, Dev lead	CTO if delayed
P2	Dev lead	Security team if delayed
P3	None	Dev lead if accumulating

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Metrics

Track These

Metric	Target
Mean time to remediate (Critical)	< 24 hours
Mean time to remediate (High)	< 1 week
Open Critical findings	0
Open High findings	< 5
False positive rate	< 10%

Dashboard Review

Weekly:

• Review open findings
• Check SLA compliance
• Identify blockers

Monthly:

• Trend analysis
• Process improvements
• Scanner tuning

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Next Steps

• Managing Findings - Update finding status
• False Positives - Handle false positives
• Continuous Security - Ongoing processes