Cosmos Ibc Security

Injectable Skill: Cosmos IBC Security

L1 trigger: L1_PATTERN=true AND IBC (ibc-go / /ibc/ / ics23 / IBC channels detected) Inject Into: depth-consensus-invariant, depth-external Language: Go (Cosmos-SDK / ibc-go) Finding prefix: [IBC-N] Status: v0.1

Orchestrator Decomposition Guide

• Sections 1, 4: depth-external (cross-chain proof / version trust boundary — the bytes that cross the chain boundary)
• Sections 2, 3, 5: depth-consensus-invariant (channel sequence, escrow accounting, handler reentrancy — all chain-state / safety class)
• A single bug can span both lenses; record it once and cross-reference.

When This Skill Activates

Recon detects an IBC integration: go.mod requires github.com/cosmos/ibc-go/..., the tree has an /ibc/ subtree, an ics23 / 23-commitment / 02-client / 04-channel path, or IBC application modules (OnRecvPacket, OnAcknowledgementPacket, OnTimeoutPacket, IBCModule impls). IBC is the trust boundary where bytes from a foreign chain enter local state via a verified proof — proof-verification gaps and packet-handler bugs are the highest-severity class here (forged value acceptance, fund theft, chain halt). Severity baseline is Medium; proof-bypass / fund-loss / chain-halt classes upgrade to High/Critical per docs/l1-mode/severity-matrix.md.

An IBC entry path is any code reachable from OnRecvPacket, OnAcknowledgementPacket, OnTimeoutPacket, OnChanOpenInit/Try/Ack/Confirm, OnChanCloseInit/Confirm, a relayer-submitted MsgRecvPacket / MsgAcknowledgement / MsgTimeout / MsgUpdateClient, or any keeper method consuming a commitment proof. Everything in those paths consumes attacker-influenceable bytes (the relayer is untrusted; the counterparty chain may be malicious) and MUST verify proofs against the correct path/prefix before acting.

1. Merkle / ICS-23 Proof Verification

Check: Every consumption of a cross-chain value must verify a full membership (or non-membership) proof against the counterparty's committed root, using the correct commitment path PREFIX and validating the emitter / source is the expected chain/channel. A proof verified against the wrong path, with a missing prefix, or without binding the value to the expected source, lets a forged value pass (ICS-23 / Dragonberry-class).

Methodology:

1. From caller_map.md / callee_map.md / function_summary.md, enumerate every call to VerifyMembership, VerifyNonMembership, VerifyProof, ics23.VerifyMembership, commitment.VerifyMembership, or any keeper method that takes a proof []byte / MerklePath / MerkleProof argument.
2. For each, confirm ALL of:
   • The proof type matches intent: a presence claim uses membership, an absence claim (e.g. "this receipt was NOT written", non-receipt-based timeout) uses non-membership — a membership check substituted for non-membership (or vice versa) is a finding.
   • The commitment path is built from the full prefix (commitmenttypes.NewMerklePath with the client's stored prefix / GetCommitmentPrefix()), not a bare key or a hardcoded/empty prefix.
   • The value bound into the proof is the value the handler then acts on (no "verify proof of X, then act on Y").
   • The proof is verified against the client state for the expected counterparty (correct clientID / connection / channel), so a value committed by a different chain cannot be replayed in.
3. Flag any VerifyProof / VerifyMembership call with no full path/prefix construction, with no emitter==expected-chain (clientID/channel) binding, or where membership/non-membership is mismatched to the claim.

Tag: [IBC-PROOF-GAP:{call}:{file}:{line}:{missing:prefix|emitter|membership-kind}]

2. Channel Sequence Integrity

Check: For an ORDERED channel, packet sequences must be processed contiguously and monotonically — sequence n+1 must not be delivered before n, and a delivered sequence must not be re-delivered. For UNORDERED channels, the receipt store must prevent replay. Missing seq-gap / monotonicity handling lets packets be skipped, reordered, or replayed.

Methodology:

1. Identify the channel ordering (channeltypes.ORDERED / UNORDERED) for each in-scope channel/module and how the handler branches on it.
2. For ORDERED channels: locate the nextSequenceRecv (and nextSequenceSend/nextSequenceAck) read/increment. Confirm OnRecvPacket rejects any packet whose sequence != the expected next, and that the counter increments by exactly one. Flag a missing contiguity check or an increment that can skip/gap.
3. For UNORDERED channels: confirm a per-packet receipt (SetPacketReceipt / GetPacketReceipt / HasPacketReceipt) blocks replay before any state effect.
4. Verify timeout and close paths keep the sequence bookkeeping consistent (a timed-out ordered packet must close the channel or advance state per spec — a silent gap is a finding).

Tag: [IBC-SEQ:{channel-kind}:{file}:{line}:{gap|replay|nonmonotonic}]

3. Escrow Burn <-> Mint Synchronization

Check: In transfer-style IBC apps, the source chain escrows (or burns) on send and the sink chain mints a voucher on recv; on the return path the voucher is burned and the escrow released. These must be atomic and balanced: burnAmt <= escrowBal, every mint on the sink corresponds to an escrow on the source, and a refund (timeout/failed-ack) returns exactly the escrowed amount. An overburn, a mint without a paired escrow record, or a desync between escrow ledger and module balance leaks or destroys funds.

Methodology:

1. Locate the escrow/voucher accounting: escrow module address (GetEscrowAddress), MintCoins/BurnCoins on the transfer module, and the per-channel/denom escrow tracking (SetTotalEscrowForDenom / GetTotalEscrowForDenom or equivalent ledger).
2. For the send path: confirm escrow (or burn) updates the tracked escrow total and that the amount escrowed equals the amount committed in the packet.
3. For the recv path: confirm the mint amount equals the packet amount and is bound to the verified packet (cannot mint without a successfully verified OnRecvPacket).
4. For the return / refund path (timeout + failed acknowledgement): confirm the refund/unescrow amount == the originally escrowed amount, that it is paid at most once per packet, and that burnAmt <= escrowBal (no overburn beyond what is tracked).
5. Flag: overburn (Burn not guarded by <= escrowBal), mint with no paired escrow/proof, double-refund on both timeout and ack, or an escrow-ledger update that can drift from bankKeeper.GetBalance(escrowAddr, denom).

Tag: [IBC-ESCROW-DESYNC:{path}:{file}:{line}:{overburn|unpaired-mint|double-refund|ledger-drift}]

4. Light-Client Version Negotiation / Downgrade

Check: Channel/connection handshake and client updates must reject versions, client types, or feature sets below the supported minimum. Silently accepting a mismatched or downgraded version opens a channel under weaker (or attacker-chosen) semantics — e.g. accepting an ORDERED request as UNORDERED, an unsupported app version, or a deprecated/weaker client type.

Methodology:

1. In OnChanOpenInit/Try/Ack/Confirm, locate the version string / feature negotiation (channeltypes.Version, ValidateChannelParams, app Version checks, metadata JSON for middleware like ICS-29 fee, ICA).
2. Confirm each handshake step rejects (returns error) when the proposed version is unsupported, below the minimum, or empty — rather than defaulting to "open anyway" or silently substituting a default.
3. For client creation/update (MsgCreateClient / MsgUpdateClient), confirm the client type is on an allow-list and that a downgrade (replacing a stronger client with a weaker one, or accepting a consensus state with a regressed height/version) is rejected.
4. Flag any handshake/version path that opens the channel/connection on a mismatch, or that picks a default version when the counterparty's is unsupported.

Tag: [IBC-VERSION-DOWNGRADE:{handshake-step}:{file}:{line}]

5. Timeout / Ack Handler Reentrancy + CEI

Check: OnTimeoutPacket and OnAcknowledgementPacket (and OnRecvPacket) must complete their own state mutations (refund the escrow, clear the commitment, advance bookkeeping) before invoking external callbacks, middleware, or hooks that can re-enter the IBC stack. A handler that calls out (a contract callback, a downstream module hook, a token send to an arbitrary address) before flushing its state can be re-entered and made to double-refund, double-mint, or skip cleanup (Checks-Effects-Interactions violation).

Methodology:

1. For each OnTimeoutPacket / OnAcknowledgementPacket / OnRecvPacket (and middleware wrappers like callbacks/ICS-29 fee/ICA), order the operations: state reads, the commitment/receipt clear, the escrow/balance update, and any external interaction (callback into another module, bankKeeper send to a user-controlled address, sub-message dispatch).
2. Confirm the commitment is cleared and the escrow/refund ledger is updated before the external call (effects before interactions). Flag any external callback or arbitrary-address transfer that runs while the packet commitment / refund flag is still in the pre-flush state — that is a reenter-before-flush window.
3. Specifically check refund idempotency: a re-entrant or replayed timeout/ack must not refund twice (a "refunded" flag / cleared commitment must gate it, set before the external call).
4. For callback middleware, confirm a malicious or reverting callback cannot leave the escrow/commitment in an inconsistent half-updated state.

Tag: [IBC-REENTRANCY:{handler}:{file}:{line}:{cei-violation|double-refund-window}]

Bounded Reads

MANDATORY — do not bulk-read large source files (context-collapse risk). Drive analysis from the Go SCIP bake graph artifacts first, then open individual symbols on demand:

• Read caller_map.md, callee_map.md, state_write_map.md, and function_summary.md (produced by the Go SCIP bake) to build the IBC entry-point reachability set (packet handlers, handshake callbacks, proof-consuming keepers) and the per-field writer set (escrow ledger, sequence counters, receipts) without reading whole modules.
• Open an individual source symbol (one packet handler / one keeper method / one proof-verify call site) ON-DEMAND only when a graph artifact flags it — never read an entire ibc/ or x/<app> tree or a multi-thousand-line file in one go.
• If a needed symbol is not in the graph artifacts, grep for the specific identifier (OnRecvPacket, VerifyMembership, GetEscrowAddress, nextSequenceRecv) and read only the matched span plus a few lines of context.
• Write enumerations (packet-handler set, proof-verify call sites, escrow paths) to small scratchpad notes; do not hold whole files in context.

Output schema

• Layer: external (Sections 1, 4) / consensus (Sections 2, 3, 5)
• Bug class: proof-gap / channel-sequence / escrow-desync / version-downgrade / handler-reentrancy
• Finding prefix: [IBC-N]
• Preferred evidence tags: [FUZZ-PASS] (proptest / Go fuzz on the packet handler or proof verifier) > [NON-DET-PASS] (replay differential) > [CODE-TRACE]
• Severity baseline: Medium; upgrade to High/Critical for proof bypass / forged-value acceptance (Section 1), fund loss (Section 3), or chain halt; see docs/l1-mode/severity-matrix.md

Known bug exemplars

Illustrative bug CLASSES only — methodology finds these generically, the names are public-incident exemplars, not protocol targets.

1. ICS-23 / Merkle proof-gap class (Dragonberry-class) — a membership/non-membership proof check that verifies against the wrong path/prefix, omits the emitter/source binding, or substitutes membership for non-membership, so a forged cross-chain value passes verification. Catch point: Section 1.
2. IAVL range-proof class — a range / non-existence proof over an ordered store that does not bind the queried key to the proven gap (left/right neighbor mismatch), letting an absent key appear present or vice versa. Catch point: Section 1 (non-membership / proof-type correctness).
3. Ordered-channel sequence-gap class — an ORDERED-channel recv path that does not enforce contiguous monotonic nextSequenceRecv, allowing packets to be skipped or reordered. Catch point: Section 2.
4. Escrow overburn / desync class — a transfer-app burn/refund path that does not guard burnAmt <= escrowBal or double-refunds on both timeout and failed-ack, draining or destroying escrowed funds. Catch point: Section 3.
5. Handler reenter-before-flush class — a timeout/ack handler that calls an external callback or sends to a user-controlled address before clearing the packet commitment / refund flag, enabling a double-refund re-entrancy window. Catch point: Section 5.

Fallback

If the SCIP graph artifacts are unavailable or incomplete:

• List ibc/**/*.go, x/*/ibc_module.go, x/*/keeper/*.go, and any 02-client / 04-channel / 23-commitment paths.
• Grep for packet handlers: func.*OnRecvPacket, func.*OnAcknowledgementPacket, func.*OnTimeoutPacket, func.*OnChanOpen.
• Grep for proof verification: VerifyMembership, VerifyNonMembership, VerifyProof, MerklePath, GetCommitmentPrefix.
• Grep for sequence / receipt bookkeeping: nextSequenceRecv, SetPacketReceipt, GetPacketReceipt, channeltypes.ORDERED.
• Grep for escrow accounting: GetEscrowAddress, MintCoins, BurnCoins, TotalEscrowForDenom.
• Grep for version negotiation: OnChanOpenInit, channeltypes.Version, ValidateChannelParams, MsgUpdateClient.

Cross-references

• Related: cosmos-sdk-module-safety (Cosmos-SDK / CometBFT module entry-point authority, signer mismatch, ABCI panic-safety around proof inputs), light-client-proof-verification (general ICS-23 / Merkle proof soundness across all L1 targets).
• Consumed by: depth-consensus-invariant, depth-external
• Severity: docs/l1-mode/severity-matrix.md