Getting Started
The hevm project is an implementation of the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) focused on symbolic analysis of EVM bytecode. This essentially means that hevm can try out all execution possibilities of your contract and see it can somehow violate some assertions you have. These assertions can be e.g. the total number of tokens must always be X, some value must never be greater than Y, some value must never overflow, etc.
In some sense, hevm is similar to a fuzzer, but instead of only trying with random values to trigger faults, it instead computes whether a fault is possible. If it is possible, it gives an example call to trigger the fault, and if it isn't possible, it mathematically proves it so, and tells the user the contract is safe. Note that while great pains have gone into making sure hevm's results can be trusted, there can always be bugs in hevm or the libraries and tools it uses.
Hevm can not only be used to find bugs in programs, but can also help to make sure that two programs behave equivalently from the outside. This may be advantageous when one may be more efficient (use less gas) to execute, but harder to reason about. This can be done via (equivalence checking)[#equivalence-checking] where hevm either proves that the behaviour of the two bytecodes is the same, or gives inputs where they differ.
Practical Scenario
Let's say we have a function that allows transfer of money, but no balance can be larger than or equal to 100. Let's see the contract and its associated check:
pragma solidity ^0.8.19;
import "ds-test/test.sol";
contract MyContract is DSTest {
mapping (address => uint) balances;
function prove_add_value(address recv, uint amt) public {
require(balances[recv] < 100);
if (balances[recv] + amt > 100) {
revert();
}
balances[recv] += amt;
assert(balances[recv] < 100);
}
}
Notice that this function has a bug: the require
and the assert
both check
for <
, but the if
checks for >
, which should instead be >=
. Let's see
if hevm
can find this bug. In order to do that, we have to prepend the
function name with prove_
, which we did.
Building
We now need a copy of hevm (see
releases) and the SMT solver z3,
which can be installed e.g. with apt-get
on ubuntu/debian or homebrew
on Mac,
and a copy of Foundry:
$ sudo apt-get install z3 # install z3
$ curl -L https://foundry.paradigm.xyz | bash # install foundryup
$ foundryup # install forge and other foundry binaries
$ mkdir mytest && cd mytest
$ wget https://github.com/ethereum/hevm/releases/download/release/0.53.0/hevm-x86_64-linux
$ chmod +x ./hevm-x86_64-linux
$ forge init .
$ cat <<EOF > src/contract.sol
pragma solidity ^0.8.19;
import "ds-test/test.sol";
contract MyContract is DSTest {
mapping (address => uint) balances;
function prove_add_value(address recv, uint amt) public {
require(balances[recv] < 100);
if (balances[recv] + amt > 100) {
revert();
}
balances[recv] += amt;
assert(balances[recv] < 100);
}
}
EOF
$ forge build --ast
[⠊] Compiling...
[⠒] Compiling 1 files with 0.8.19
[⠢] Solc 0.8.19 finished in 14.27ms
Compiler run successful!
Finding the Bug
Now let's run hevm
to see if it finds the bug:
$ hevm test --solver z3
Running 1 tests for src/contract.sol:MyContract
[FAIL] prove_add_value(address,uint256)
Counterexample:
result: Revert: 0x4e487b710000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001
calldata: prove_add_value(0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000000,100)
Fixing the Bug
This counterexample tells us that when sending exactly 100 to an empty account, the new
balance will violate the < 100
assumption. Let's fix this bug, the new prove_add_value
should now say:
function prove_add_value(address recv, uint amt) public {
require(balances[recv] < 100);
if (balances[recv] + amt >= 100) {
revert();
}
balances[recv] += amt;
assert(balances[recv] < 100);
}
Let's re-build with forge and check with hevm once again:
$ forge build --ast
[⠰] Compiling...
[⠔] Compiling 1 files with 0.8.19
[⠒] Solc 0.8.19 finished in 985.32ms
Compiler run successful!
$ hevm test --solver z3
Running 1 tests for src/contract.sol:MyContract
[PASS] prove_add_value(address,uint256)
We now get a PASS
. Notice that this doesn't only mean that hevm couldn't find
a bug within a given time frame. Instead, it means that there is surely no call
to prove_add_value
such that our assertion can be violated. However, it does
not check for things that it was not asked to check for. In particular, it
does not check that e.g. the sender's balance is decremented. There is no such
test and so this omission is not detected.
Capabilities
- Symbolic execution of solidity tests written using
ds-test
(a.k.a "foundry tests"). This allows one to find all potential failure modes of a function. - Fetch remote state via RPC so your tests can be rooted in the real-world, calling out to other, existing contracts, with existing state and already deloyed bytecode.
- Prove equivalence of two different bytecode objects such as two functions or even entire contracts.
History
Hevm was originally developed as part of the dapptools project, and was forked to this repo by the Formal Verification team at the Ethereum Foundation in August 2022.
Quick Installation Guide
To fastest way to start using hevm is to install Foundry, e.g. via
curl -L https://foundry.paradigm.xyz | bash
Next, you need to have either Z3 or cvc5 installed. Often, these can be installed via:
$ sudo apt-get install z3
or similar. If you installed cvc5 instead, you will need to pass the flag "--solver cvc5" to "hevm test" later.
Finally, download the static hevm binary from the github repository for your platform and put it in your path so it can be executed via typing "hevm".
How to Check if it Works
Once you have the above, you can go to the root of your forge-based project and build it:
$ forge build --ast
[⠒] Compiling...
[⠆] Compiling 34 files with 0.8.19
[⠔] Solc 0.8.19 finished in 2.12s
Compiler run successful.
Then run hevm on all functions prefixed with prove_
as such:
$ hevm test
Checking 1 function(s) in contract src/contract-pass.sol:MyContract
[RUNNING] prove_pass(address,uint256)
[PASS] prove_pass(address,uint256)
See Forge std-test tutorial for details.
Note that Foundry provides the solidity compiler, hence there is no need to install solidity separately.
When to use Symbolic Execution
In the cryptocurrency world, it is exceedingly easy to lose a lot of assets due to bugs. While fuzz testing can help find potential issues with digital contracts, it is a tool that can only execute the program concretely, one execution at a time. In contrast, Symbolic Execution can execute all potential values in a decision path "in one go", creating a symbolic expression out of a path, and checking whether it can trigger a fault. Hence, Symbolic Execution tends to be more efficient at finding bugs than fuzzing when the bugs are rare, or explicitly (i.e. maliciously) hidden. Symbolic Execution can also prove that no postcondition can be violated, increasing the overall confidence in the contract. Note, however, that Symbolic Execution does not automatically generate postconditions for well-known bug classes like static code analysis tools do. Instead, these postconditions, and their sometimes associated preconditions, need to be explicitly written.
Fuzzing versus Symbolic Execution
Fuzzing tests usually have a set of (sometimes implicit) pre- and postconditions, but the actual action (e.g. function call) is performed by an external entity, the fuzzer. For C/C++ fuzzing, the implicit postcondition is often e.g. that the system does not throw a segmentation fault. For EVM bytecode, postconditions need to be explicit. Let's see an example:
// SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
pragma solidity ^0.8.19;
import "ds-test/test.sol";
contract MyContract is DSTest {
uint balance;
function test_overflow(uint amt) public {
unchecked {
balance += amt;
}
assert(balance >= amt);
}
}
This function is easy to break by picking an amt
that overflows balance
,
so that the postcondition balance > amt
will not hold. A
fuzzer finds this kind of bug very
easily. However, fuzzers have trouble finding bugs that are either specifically
hidden (e.g. by a malicious developer), or that have a complicated code path
towards them. Let's see a simple one:
// SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
pragma solidity ^0.8.19;
import "ds-test/test.sol";
contract MyContract is DSTest {
uint balance;
function prove_multiply(uint amt, uint amt2) public {
require(amt != 1);
require(amt2 != 1);
require(amt < amt2);
uint tmp;
tmp = amt * amt2;
if (tmp == 119274257) balance = 1337;
else balance += tmp;
assert(balance >= tmp);
}
}
Calling this contract with amt = 9479
and amt2 = 12583
will set the balance
to 1337 which is less than amt*amt2
, breaking the postcondition. However, a
fuzzer, e.g. Echidna will likely not find
those numbers, because uint
has a potential range of 2**256
and so it'd be
looking for a needle in a haystack, when looking randomly. Here's how to run
Echidna on the multiplication test:
// SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
pragma solidity ^0.8.19;
contract MyContract {
// the rest is the same
}
Then run:
echidna --test-mode assertion src/multiply-test.sol
Echidna will terminate after 50k runs, with all tests passing. Notice that the difference here, compared to the previous example, is that the overflow example has many different inputs that can break the postcondition, whereas here only one can.
Hevm finds the bug in both of these functions. This is because hevm (and symbolic execution frameworks in general) try to find the bug via proof-directed search rather than using random inputs. In hevm, we try to prove that there are no inputs to the test case such that given the preconditions, the postconditions can be broken. While trying to construct this mathematical proof, hevm finds a countereexample, an input that breaks the postconditions:
$ hevm test
Checking 1 function(s) in contract src/multiply-test.sol:MyContract
[RUNNING] prove_multiply(uint256,uint256)
[FAIL] prove_multiply(uint256,uint256)
Counterexample:
result: Revert: 0x4e487b710000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001
calldata: prove_multiply(9479,12583)
Checking 1 function(s) in contract src/overflow-test.sol:MyContract
[RUNNING] prove_overflow(uint256)
[FAIL] prove_overflow(uint256)
Counterexample:
result: Revert: 0x4e487b710000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001
calldata: prove_overflow(00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000100000000000000000182dad8c17bd5e89e8043a08ada90a6d5efdee4425f85cb863109783e158ba4fba908a0e6fae6c6b51002)
Similarities and Differences to Other Tools
Fuzzers are exceedingly fast and efficient when there are many potential faults with a function/contract, or if the faults are of a type that's easy to search for (e.g. off-by-one). However, they rarely, if ever, find cases where the bug is hidden deep in the branch logic, or needs very specific input parameters. Hence, it is best to use fuzzers at first to find easy-to-find bugs, as fuzzers are very efficient at that. Then, once the tests pass the fuzzer, it is recommended to use a symbolic execution engine such as hevm.
hevm is similar to Halmos and Kontrol in its approach. However, it is quite different from static code analysis tools such as Oyente, Slither, and Mythril. While these 3 tools typically use some form of symbolic execution to try to validate their results, their main method of operation is not via symbolic execution, and they can, and do, report false positives.
Notice that static code analysis tools can find bugs that the author(s) didn't write a test case for, as they typically have a (large) set of preconfigured test-cases that they can report on, if they can find a way to violate them. Hence, it may be valuable to run static analysis tools alongside symbolic execution tools such as hevm.
Finally, SMTChecker may also be interesting to run alongside hevm. SMTChecker is very different from both approaches detailed above. While SMTChecker is capable of reliably finding both reentrancy and loop-related bugs, the tools above can only do so on a best effort basis. Hevm often reports a warning of incompleteness for such problems, while static code analysis tools either report potential positives or may even not discover them at all.
Tool | Approach | Primary Method | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
hevm | Symbolic analysis of EVM bytecode | Symbolic execution | Focuses on exploring all execution possibilities, identifying potential assertion violations, and optimizing gas usage. Can prove equivalence between bytecodes. |
Halmos | Similar to hevm | Not specified | Approach similar to hevm, but the document does not detail specific methodologies or differences. |
Kontrol | Similar to hevm | Not specified | Approach similar to hevm, with a focus presumably on symbolic analysis as well, but further details are not provided in the document. |
Oyente | Static code analysis | Partial symbolic execution | Uses symbolic execution to validate results but primarily relies on static analysis. Can report false positives. |
Slither | Static code analysis | Partial symbolic execution | Similar to Oyente, uses static analysis as its main method, complemented by symbolic execution for validation. Known for reporting false positives. |
Mythril | Static code analysis | Partial symbolic execution | Combines static code analysis with symbolic execution for result validation. Like Oyente and Slither, can report false positives. |
SMTChecker | Different from both hevm and static code analysis tools | SMT solving | Capable of finding reentrancy and loop-related bugs reliably, which other tools might miss or report incompletely. Offers a distinct approach from symbolic execution. |
Limitations and Workarounds
Symbolic execution in general, and hevm in particular, have a number of known limitations. Many of these limitations can be worked around without too much effort. This document describes some of the most common limitations and workarounds.
Loops and recursion
The most important issue related to symbolic execution is to do with loops and recursion. For example, the following code is hard to deal with in a symbolic context:
function loop(uint n) {
for(uint i = 0; i < n; i++) {
mystate[i]++;
}
}
When such a function is called, and n
is a symbolic parameter (e.g. parameter
to a function prove_
, such as prove_correct(uint n)
), hevm would need to
create a new execution path for each potential value of n
, which can be very
large. The same principle applies to recursion, where the depth of the
recursion may be unbounded or bounded only by a potentially very large number.
Hence, hevm only explores loops and recursions up to fixed depth k
, a
parameter that can be adjusted from the command line via the --max-iterations k
parameter. Whenever the limit is hit, hevm warns of the incomplete exploration:
WARNING: hevm was only able to partially explore the call prefix 0x[...] due to the following issue(s):
- Max Iterations Reached in contract: 0x[...] pc: [...]
In general, the workaround suggested is to try to write code without loops, if
possible, or to have a limit on the number of iterations. For example, by using
max(k,n)
instead of n
in the loop condition, where k
is a fixed number.
Unbounded loops are a problem for digital contracts, as they may be forced by
an attacker to exhaust gas, thereby potentially e.g. deadlocking the contract.
This can lock in (large) funds, which can be a very serious issue. Hence,
limiting loop iterations is a good practice in general -- not only for symbolic
execution.
Best Practices:
- Try to write code without loops, if possible.
- Use
max(k,n)
instead ofn
in the loop condition, wherek
is a fixed number. - Avoid unbounded loops to prevent potential gas exhaustion attacks
Gas costs
Gas is hard to symbolically track, due to certain opcodes, such as SLOAD, having different cost depending on the parameters to the opcode. Many symbolic execution systems, including hevm, solve this by not fully tracking gas. This means that hevm may report that an assertion failure can occur through a particular execution trace, but that trace would cost more to execute than the allowable gas limit.
In general, it is possible to check whether the issue can be hit by running the hevm-provided counterexample in a concrete execution setting, thereby filtering out false positives. However, it is strongly advisable to fix potential issues that are only guarded due to gas exhaustion, as they may become exploitable in the future, when gas costs change.
Best Practices:
- Don't rely on gas exhaustion as a security mechanism.
- Check potential issues by running the hevm-provided counterexample in a concrete execution setting.
Symbolic arguments to certain EVM opcodes
When a symbolic argument is passed to an EVM opcode that hevm cannot deal with symbolically, an error is raised. There are number of such EVM opcodes, for example JUMP, JUMPI, CALL, CALLCODE, DELEGATECALL, STATICCALL, CREATE, CREATE2, SELFDESTRUCT, etc. If any of these are called with an argument that is symbolic, hevm raises an error, such as:
WARNING: hevm was only able to partially explore the call prefix 0x[...] due to the following issue(s):
- Attempting to transfer eth to a symbolic address that is not present in the state
There is no single workaround for this class of issues, as it depends on the
specific circumstances of the code. In general, we suggest trying to concretize
the call to the code, such that only what is truly needed to be symbolic is
left symbolic. For example, you may be able to force partial concrete execution via
require()
statements, thereby concretizing the potential symbolic value. Similarly,
dynamically computed JUMP destinations can be avoided via pre-computed jump tables, etc.
Best Practices:
- Use
require()
statements to concretize symbolic values - Avoid dynamically computed jumps -- use pre-computed jump-tables, if neccesary
Jumping into symbolic code
Jumping into symbolic code is not supported by hevm. This can happen when, e.g. a function creates a contract based on a symbolic value, and then jumps into the code of that contract. In these cases, you will get a warning like the following:
WARNING: hevm was only able to partially explore the call prefix 0x[...] due to the following issue(s):
- Encountered a jump into a potentially symbolic code region while executing initcode. pc: [...] jump dst: [...]
For these cases, we suggest concretizing the call that creates the contract, such that the bytecode created and later jumped to, is not symbolic.
General overview
To get an idea about what hevm
is, see CAV'24 paper.
You can also check out a few presentations by @msooseth.
Debugging
Printf-style debugging
Haskell offers a way to print messages anywhere in the code with Debug.Trace.
The simplest is trace
which takes a string and a value and returns the same value while printing the string.
For example
add x y = trace "Hello from add!" (x + y)
Testing
hevm
uses Tasty framework for running tests, including QuickCheck
for property-based testing.
Running tests
The basic command to run the tests is:
cabal run test
For development, it might be beneficial to pass devel
flag:
cabal run -f devel test
This should enable parallel compilation and test runs (see the config file hevm.cabal
).
Additional parameters can be passed to the test runner after --
. For example cabal run test -- --help
will list all the additional parameters.
Some of the interesting options are -p <PATTERN>
to filter only some of the tests and --quickcheck-tests <NUMBER>
to control how many tests quickcheck will generate for each property test.
On property-based testing
There are a few ways to control how many tests Quickcheck will generate per property.
By default, it generates 100 tests (satisfying the precondition).
This can be controlled by maxSuccess
argument passed to Quickcheck, or, in Tasty framework, using localOption (QuickCheckTests <N>)
.
Passing --quickcheck-tests <N>
to the binary will change this value to <N>
.
This value can be dynamically adjusted for a test group or a specific test.
For example, instead of localOption
it is possible to use adjustOption
for a test group.
The following ensures that for the following test group, the maximal value of the QuickCheckTests
option is 50
(but if the current value is lower, it will be left unchanged).
adjustOption (\(Test.Tasty.QuickCheck.QuickCheckTests n) -> Test.Tasty.QuickCheck.QuickCheckTests (min n 50))
Similarly, the maxSuccess
value can be modified for a single test. The following sets the number of tests generated to 20 for the particular test:
testProperty <property_name> $ withMaxSuccess 20 $ ...
Profiling
Profiling Haskell code
NOTE: Most of the time will likely be spent in the solver, and that will not show up when profiling Haskell application.
In order to build the application with profiling information, we need to pass --enable-profiling
to cabal
.
If we want to profile the test suite, we could run
cabal run test --enable-profiling -- +RTS -p
Note that +RTS
means the next arguments will be passed to GHC and -p instructs the program to create a time profile report.
This report is written into the .prof
file.
If we want to pass arguments to our executable, we have to indicate this with -RTS
, for example, to profile run of only some tests, we would use
cabal run test --enable-profiling -- +RTS -p -RTS -p <test_to_profile>
Forge std-test Usage Tutorial
Test cases must be prepended with prove_
and the testing contract must
inherit from Test
from Forge's standard test
library. First, import Test:
import {Test} from "forge-std/Test.sol";
and then inherit from it via ... is Test
. This allows hevm to discover the test cases it needs to run. Like so:
pragma solidity ^0.8.19;
import {Test} from "forge-std/Test.sol";
contract BadVaultTest is Test {
function prove_mytest() {
// environment setup, preconditions
// call(s) to test
// postcondition checks
}
}
Once you have written such a test case, you need to compile with forge build --ast
(see forge documentation for more
details) and then:
$ hevm test
Checking 1 function(s) in contract src/badvault-test.sol:BadVault
[RUNNING] prove_mytest(uint256)
[PASS] prove_mytest(uint256)
Here, hevm discovered the test case, and automatically checked it for violations.
Setting Up Tests
Tests usually need to set up the environment in a particular way, such as contract address, storage, etc. This can be done via Cheat Codes that can change the address of the caller, set block number, etc. See Cheat Codes below for a range of cheat codes supported. Cheat Codes are a standard method used by other tools, such as Foundry, so you should be able to re-use your existing setup. An example setup could be:
pragma solidity ^0.8.19;
import {Test} from "forge-std/Test.sol";
contract BadVaultTest is Test {
MyVault vault;
function setUp() public {
// Set up environment
vault = new BadVault();
address user1 = address(1);
vm.deal(user1, 1 ether);
vm.prank(user1);
vault.deposit{value: 1 ether}();
address user2 = address(2);
vm.deal(user2, 1 ether);
vm.prank(user2);
vault.deposit{value: 1 ether}();
address attacker = address(42);
vm.prank(attacker);
// call(s) to test
// postcondition checks
}
}
The postconditions should check the state of the contract after the call(s) are complete. In particular, it should check that the changes that the function applied did not break any of the (invariants)[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invariant_(mathematics)] of the contract, such as total number of tokens.
You can read more about testing and cheat codes in the (Foundry Book)[https://book.getfoundry.sh/forge/cheatcodes] and you can see the hevm-supported cheat codes below.
Understanding Counterexamples
When hevm discovers a failure, it prints an example call how to trigger the failure. Let's see the following simple solidity code:
pragma solidity ^0.8.19;
import {Test} from "forge-std/Test.sol";
contract MyContract is Test {
mapping (address => uint) balances;
function prove_single_fail(address recv, uint amt) public {
require(balances[recv] < 100);
if (balances[recv] + amt > 100) { revert(); }
balances[recv] += amt;
assert(balances[recv] < 100);
}
}
When compiling our foundry project, we must either always pass the --ast
flag
to forge build
, or, much better, set the ast = true
flag in the
foundry.toml
file:
ast = true
In case neither --ast
was passed, nor ast = true
was set in the
foundry.toml
file, we will get an error such as:
Error: unable to parse Foundry project JSON: [...]/out/Base.sol/CommonBase.json Contract: "CommonBase"
In these cases, issue forge clean
and run forge build --ast
again.
Once the project has been correctly built, we can run hevm test
, and get:
$ hevm test
Checking 1 function(s) in contract src/contract-fail.sol:MyContract
[RUNNING] prove_single_fail(address,uint256)
[FAIL] prove_single_fail(address,uint256)
Counterexample:
result: Revert: 0x4e487b710000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001
calldata: prove_single_fail(0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000000,100)
Here, hevm provided us with a calldata, where the receiver happens to be the
zero address, and the value sent is exactly 100. This indeed is the boundary
condition where the function call fails. The function should have had a >=
rather than a >
in the if
. Notice that in this case, while hevm filled in
the address
to give a complete call, the address itself is irrelevant,
although this is not explicitly mentioned.
Starting State is Always Concrete
In test
mode, hevm runs with the starting state set to concrete values. This
means that with the solidity-generated default constructor of contracts, state
variables will be zero, and arrays and mappings will be empty. If you need a
different starting state, such as e.g. tokens already distributed to some
addresses, you can set that up in the setup phase of your test. This can be
done via the beforeTestSetup
function, as documented in the Foundry
Book.
In case you need a symbolic starting state, see the Symbolic execution
tutorial. Note that if all you need is a
symbolic calldata, then you don't need to run hevm
in symbolic mode, you can
simply run hevm test
and hevm will provide you with a symbolic calldata.
Test Cases that Must Always Revert
Hevm assumes that a test case should not always revert. If you have such a test case, hevm will warn you and return a FAIL. For example this toy contract:
pragma solidity ^0.8.19;
import {Test} from "forge-std/Test.sol";
contract MyContract is Test {
uint256 cntr;
function prove_allrevert(uint256 val) public {
if(val < 0) {
unchecked { cntr = val; }
revert();
} else revert();
}
}
When compiled with forge and then ran under hevm with hevm test
, hevm returns:
Checking 1 function(s) in contract src/contract-allrevert.sol:MyContract
[RUNNING] prove_allrevert(uint256)
[FAIL] prove_allrevert(uint256)
Reason:
No reachable assertion violations, but all branches reverted
Prefix this testname with `proveFail` if this is expected
This is sometimes undesirable. In these cases, prefix your contract with
proveFail_
instead of prove_
:
pragma solidity ^0.8.19;
import {Test} from "forge-std/Test.sol";
contract MyContract is Test {
uint256 cntr;
function proveFail_allrevert_expected(uint256 val) public {
if(val < 0) {
unchecked {
cntr = val;
cntr += 1;
}
revert();
}
else revert();
}
}
When this is compiled with forge and then checked with hevm, it leads to:
Checking 1 function(s) in contract src/contract-allrevert-expected.sol:MyContract
[RUNNING] proveFail_allrevert_expected(uint256)
[PASS] proveFail_allrevert_expected(uint256)
Which is now the expected outcome.
Supported Cheat Codes
Since hevm is an EVM implementation mainly dedicated to testing and
exploration, it features a set of "cheat codes" which can manipulate the
environment in which the execution is run. These can be accessed by calling
into a contract (typically called Vm
) at address
0x7109709ECfa91a80626fF3989D68f67F5b1DD12D
, which happens to be keccak("hevm cheat code"),
implementing the following methods:
Function | Description |
---|---|
function prank(address sender) public | Sets msg.sender to the specified sender for the next call. |
function startPrank(address sender) public | Sets msg.sender to the specified sender until stopPrank() is called. |
function stopPrank() public | Resets msg.sender to the default sender. |
function deal(address usr, uint amt) public | Sets the eth balance of usr to amt . Note that if usr is a symbolic address, then it must be the address of a contract that has already been deployed. This restriction is in place to ensure soundness of our symbolic address encoding with respect to potential aliasing of symbolic addresses. |
function store(address c, bytes32 loc, bytes32 val) public | Sets the slot loc of contract c to val . |
function warp(uint x) public | Sets the block timestamp to x . |
function roll(uint x) public | Sets the block number to x . |
function assume(bool b) public | Add the condition b to the assumption base for the current branch. This functions almost identically to require . For most users, require is preferable. However, in case you wish to understand & modify the internal IR of hevm, you may want to use assume . |
function load(address c, bytes32 loc) public returns (bytes32 val) | Reads the slot loc of contract c . |
function sign(uint sk, bytes32 digest) public returns (uint8 v, bytes32 r, bytes32 s) | Signs the digest using the private key sk . Note that signatures produced via hevm.sign will leak the private key. |
function addr(uint sk) public returns (address addr) | Derives an ethereum address from the private key sk . Note that hevm.addr(0) will fail with BadCheatCode as 0 is an invalid ECDSA private key. |
function ffi(string[] calldata) external returns (bytes memory) | Executes the arguments as a command in the system shell and returns stdout. Expects abi encoded values to be returned from the shell or an error will be thrown. Note that this cheatcode means test authors can execute arbitrary code on user machines as part of a call to dapp test , for this reason all calls to ffi will fail unless the --ffi flag is passed. |
function createFork(string calldata urlOrAlias) external returns (uint256) | Creates a new fork with the given endpoint and the latest block and returns the identifier of the fork. |
function selectFork(uint256 forkId) external | Takes a fork identifier created by createFork and sets the corresponding forked state as active. |
function activeFork() external returns (uint256) | Returns the identifier of the current fork. |
function label(address addr, string calldata label) external | Labels the address in traces |
Equivalence Checking Tutorial
Equivalence checking allows to check whether two bytecodes do the same thing under all input circumstances. This allows to e.g. create two functions, one that is known to be good, and another that uses less gas, but is hard to check for correctness. Then, with equivalence checking, one can check whether the two behave the same.
The notion of equivalence in hevm is defined as follows. Two contracts are equivalent if for all possible calldata and state, after execution has finished, their observable storage state is equivalent and they return the same value. In particular, the following is NOT checked when checking for equivalence:
Note that in the Solidity ABI, the calldata's first 4 bytes are the function selector which decide which function is being called, along with the potential fallback function mechanism. Hence, treating calldata as symbolic covers all possible function calls, including fallback functions. While not all contracts follow the Solidity ABI, since hevm's symbolic equivalence checker does not distinguish between function selector and function parameter bytes in the calldata, it will still correctly check the equivalence of such non-conforming contracts.
Finding Discrepancies
Let's see this toy contract, in file contract1.sol:
//SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
pragma solidity ^0.8.19;
contract MyContract {
mapping (address => uint) balances;
function my_adder(address recv, uint amt) public {
if (balances[recv] + amt >= 100) { revert(); }
balances[recv] += amt;
}
}
And this, slightly modified one, in file contract2.sol:
//SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
pragma solidity ^0.8.19;
contract MyContract {
mapping (address => uint) balances;
function my_adder(address recv, uint amt) public {
if (balances[recv] + amt >= 100) { revert(); }
balances[recv] += amt/2;
balances[recv] += amt/2;
}
}
Now ask hevm if they are equivalent. First, let's compile both contracts and get their bytecode:
bytecode1=$(solc --bin-runtime "contract1.sol" | tail -n1)
bytecode2=$(solc --bin-runtime "contract2.sol" | tail -n1)
Let's ask hevm to compare the two:
$ hevm equivalence \
--code-a $(solc --bin-runtime "contract1.sol" | tail -n1) \
--code-b $(solc --bin-runtime "contract2.sol" | tail -n1)
Found 90 total pairs of endstates
Asking the SMT solver for 58 pairs
Reuse of previous queries was Useful in 0 cases
Not equivalent. The following inputs result in differing behaviours:
-----
Calldata:
0xafc2c94900000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000023
Storage:
Addr SymAddr "entrypoint": [(0x0,0x10)]
Transaction Context:
TxValue: 0x0
This tells us that with a value of 0x23 being sent, which corresponds
to 35, the two are not equivalent. This is indeed the case: one will add 35 div 2 = 17
twice, which is 34, the other will add 35.
Fixing and Proving Correctness
Let's fix the above issue by incrementing the balance by 1 in case it's an odd value. Let's call this contract3.sol:
//SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
pragma solidity ^0.8.19;
contract MyContract {
mapping (address => uint) balances;
function my_adder(address recv, uint amt) public {
if (balances[recv] + amt >= 100) { revert(); }
balances[recv] += amt/2;
balances[recv] += amt/2;
if (amt % 2 != 0) balances[recv]++;
}
}
Let's check whether this new contract is indeed equivalent:
$ hevm equivalence \
--code-a $(solc --bin-runtime "contract1.sol" | tail -n1) \
--code-b $(solc --bin-runtime "contract3.sol" | tail -n1)
Found 108 total pairs of endstates
Asking the SMT solver for 74 pairs
Reuse of previous queries was Useful in 0 cases
No discrepancies found
Hevm reports that the two are now equivalent, even though they clearly don't consume the same amount of gas and have widely different EVM bytecodes. Yet for an outside observer, they behave the same. Notice that hevm didn't simply fuzz the contract and within a given out of time it didn't find a counterexample. Instead, it proved the two equivalent from an outside observer perspective.
Dealing with Already Compiled Contracts
If the contracts have already been compiled into a hex string, you can paste
them into files a.txt
and b.txt
and compare them via:
$ hevm equivalence --code-a "$(<a.txt)" --code-b "$(<b.txt)"
You can also copy-paste the contents of the hex strings directly into the command line, although this can become cumbersome:
$ hevm equivalence --code-a "6080604052348015600e575f80fd5b50600436106026575f3560e01c8063881fc77c14602a575b5f80fd5b60306032565b005b5f600190506002811460455760446048565b5b50565b7f4e487b71000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000005f52600160045260245ffdfea26469706673582212208c57ae04774d9ebae7d1d11f9d5e730075068bc7988d4c83c6fed85b7f062e7b64736f6c634300081a0033" --code-b "6080604052348015600e575f80fd5b50600436106030575f3560e01c806385c2fc7114603457806386ae330914603c575b5f80fd5b603a6044565b005b60426055565b005b60025f541460535760526066565b5b565b60035f541460645760636066565b5b565b7f4e487b71000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000005f52600160045260245ffdfea2646970667358221220bd2f8a1ba281308f845e212d2b5eceab85e029909fa2409cdca7ede039bae26564736f6c634300081a0033"
Symbolic Execution Tutorial
Symbolic execution mode of hevm checks whether any call to the contract could result in an assertion violation. Let's see a simple contract, in file contract-symb-1.sol:
//SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
pragma solidity ^0.8.19;
contract MyContract {
function simple_symb() public pure {
uint i;
i = 1;
assert(i == 2);
}
}
Let's first compile it with solc
:
$ solc --bin-runtime contract-symb-1.sol
======= contract-symb-1.sol:MyContract =======
Binary:
6080604052348015600e575f80f....
Now let's symbolically execute it:
$ hevm symbolic --sig "simple_symb()" --code "6080604052348015...."
Discovered the following counterexamples:
Calldata:
0x881fc77c
Storage:
Addr SymAddr "miner": []
Addr SymAddr "origin": []
Transaction Context:
TxValue: 0x0
Symbolically executing a specific function
When there are more than one functions in the code, the system will try to symbolically execute all. Let's take the file contract-symb-2.sol:
//SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
pragma solidity ^0.8.19;
contract MyContract {
uint i;
function simple_symb1() public view {
assert(i == 2);
}
function simple_symb2() public view {
assert(i == 3);
}
}
And compile it with solc:
$ solc --bin-runtime contract-symb-2.sol
======= contract-symb-2.sol:MyContract =======
Binary of the runtime part:
6080604052348015600e57....
Now execute the bytecode symbolically with hevm:
$ hevm symbolic --code "608060405234...."
Discovered the following counterexamples:
Calldata:
0x85c2fc71
Storage:
Addr SymAddr "entrypoint": [(0x0,0x0)]
Addr SymAddr "miner": []
Addr SymAddr "origin": []
Transaction Context:
TxValue: 0x0
Calldata:
0x86ae3309
Storage:
Addr SymAddr "entrypoint": [(0x0,0x0)]
Addr SymAddr "miner": []
Addr SymAddr "origin": []
Transaction Context:
TxValue: 0x0
Notice that hevm discovered two issues. The calldata in each case is the function
signature that cast
from foundry
gives for the two functions:
$ cast sig "simple_symb1()"
0x85c2fc71
$cast sig "simple_symb2()"
0x86ae3309
In case you only want to execute only a particular function, you can ask hevm
to only execute a particular function signature via the --sig
option:
$ hevm symbolic --sig "simple_symb1()" --code "6080604052348015600...."
Discovered the following counterexamples:
Calldata:
0x85c2fc71
Storage:
Addr SymAddr "entrypoint": [(0x0,0xffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff)]
Addr SymAddr "miner": []
Addr SymAddr "origin": []
Abstract versus empty starting storage
The initial store state of hevm
is completely abstract. This means that the
functions are explored for all possible values of the state. Let's take the
following contract contract-symb-3.sol:
//SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
pragma solidity ^0.8.19;
contract MyContract {
uint i;
function simple_symb() public view {
assert(i == 0);
}
}
Let's compile with solc:
solc --bin-runtime contract-symb-3.sol
======= contract-symb-3.sol:MyContract =======
Binary of the runtime part:
6080604052348015600e575f80fd5b50600436106026575f3560e01c806388....
With default symbolic execution, a counterexample is found:
$ cabal hevm symbolic --initial-storage Empty --code "60806040523...."
Discovered the following counterexamples:
Calldata:
0x881fc77c
Storage:
Addr SymAddr "entrypoint": [(0x0,0x1)]
Addr SymAddr "miner": []
Addr SymAddr "origin": []
Transaction Context:
TxValue: 0x0
However, notice that the counterexample has 1
as the value for i
storage
variable. However, this contract can never actually assign i
to any value.
Running this contract with --initial-state Empty
ensures that the default
value, 0, is assigned, and the assert can never fail:
cabal run exe:hevm -- symbolic --initial-storage Empty --code "60806040...."
QED: No reachable property violations discovered
Here, no counterexamples are discovered, because with empty default state, the
value of i
is zero, and therefore assert(i == 0)
will all never trigger.
Using forge to build your project for symbolic execution
Forge can also be used to build your project and run symbolic execution on it.
This fits in well with standard development practices. You can use forge
to
build and then jq
to extract the runtime bytecode. Let's say we have the
following contract:
contract AbsStorage {
uint256 public a;
function not2() public {
assert(a != 2);
}
}
Notice that this contract cannot set a
to 2, hence the assert will never fail
in the real world. However, in symbolic
mode, hevm allows the state to be
symbolic, hence it can explore all possible values of a
, even ones that are
not possible in the real world. Let's compile this contract with forge and then
run symbolic execution on it:
$ forge build --ast
[⠒] Compiling...
[⠢] Compiling 1 files with Solc 0.8.19
[⠆] Solc 0.8.19 finished in 11.46ms
$ hevm symbolic --code $(jq -r '.deployedBytecode.object' out/abs_storage.sol/AbsStorage.json )
Discovered the following 1 counterexample(s):
Calldata:
0xb1712ffd
Storage:
Addr SymAddr "entrypoint": [(0x0,0x2)]
Addr SymAddr "miner": []
Addr SymAddr "origin": []
Transaction Context:
TxValue: 0x0
The calldata provided by hevm is the function signature of not2()
. This can
be checked via cast
, which is installed as part of foundry:
cast keccak "not2()"
0xb1712ffd...
We can get all the details of the state and context led to the counterexample
by using the --get-models
flag. While there will be a number of branches
displayed, only one will be relevant to the counterexample. Here is the
relevant branch:
=== Models for 8 branches ===
[...]
--- Branch ---
Inputs:
Calldata:
0xb1712ffd
Storage:
Addr SymAddr "entrypoint": [(0x0,0x2)]
Transaction Context:
TxValue: 0x0
End State:
(Failure
Error:
(Revert
(ConcreteBuf
Length: 36 (0x24) bytes
0000: 4e 48 7b 71 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 NH{q............
0010: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0020: 00 00 00 01 ....
)
)
[...]
Here, the storage variable is set to 2
, which is the value that
the assert
tested for. Notice that the panic exception is of type 01
, which
is what's expected for an assert
failure in
solidity.
hevm test
Usage: hevm test [--root STRING] [--project-type PROJECTTYPE] [--rpc TEXT]
[--number W256] [--verbose INT] [--coverage] [--match STRING]
[--solver TEXT] [--num-solvers NATURAL] [--smtdebug] [--debug]
[--trace] [--ffi] [--smttimeout NATURAL]
[--max-iterations INTEGER]
[--loop-detection-heuristic LOOPHEURISTIC]
[--abstract-arithmetic] [--abstract-memory]
[--num-cex-fuzz INTEGER] [--ask-smt-iterations INTEGER]
Available options:
-h,--help Show this help text
--root STRING Path to project root directory (default: . )
--project-type PROJECTTYPE
Is this a Foundry or DappTools project (default:
Foundry)
--rpc TEXT Fetch state from a remote node
--number W256 Block: number
--verbose INT Append call trace: {1} failures {2} all
--coverage Coverage analysis
--match STRING Test case filter - only run methods matching regex
--solver TEXT Used SMT solver: z3 (default), cvc5, or bitwuzla
--num-solvers NATURAL Number of solver instances to use (default: number of
cpu cores)
--smtdebug Print smt queries sent to the solver
--debug Debug printing of internal behaviour
--trace Dump trace
--ffi Allow the usage of the hevm.ffi() cheatcode (WARNING:
this allows test authors to execute arbitrary code on
your machine)
--smttimeout NATURAL Timeout given to SMT solver in seconds (default: 300)
--max-iterations INTEGER Number of times we may revisit a particular branching
point
--loop-detection-heuristic LOOPHEURISTIC
Which heuristic should be used to determine if we are
in a loop: StackBased (default) or Naive
(default: StackBased)
--abstract-arithmetic Use abstraction-refinement for complicated arithmetic
functions such as MulMod. This runs the solver first
with abstraction turned on, and if it returns a
potential counterexample, the counterexample is
refined to make sure it is a counterexample for the
actual (not the abstracted) problem
--abstract-memory Use abstraction-refinement for Memory. This runs the
solver first with abstraction turned on, and if it
returns a potential counterexample, the
counterexample is refined to make sure it is a
counterexample for the actual (not the abstracted)
problem
--num-cex-fuzz INTEGER Number of fuzzing tries to do to generate a
counterexample (default: 3) (default: 3)
--ask-smt-iterations INTEGER
Number of times we may revisit a particular branching
point before we consult the smt solver to check
reachability (default: 1) (default: 1)
hevm test
executes all solidity unit tests that make use of the std-test
assertion library
(a.k.a Foundry tests). It
supports both foundry based (the default) and dapptools based projects.
A more detailed introduction to symbolic unit tests with hevm
can be found
here. An
overview of using std-test
for solidity testing can be found in the foundry
book.
hevm symbolic
Usage: hevm symbolic [--code TEXT] [--calldata TEXT] [--address ADDR]
[--caller ADDR] [--origin ADDR] [--coinbase ADDR]
[--value W256] [--nonce WORD64] [--gas WORD64]
[--number W256] [--timestamp W256] [--basefee W256]
[--priority-fee W256] [--gaslimit WORD64] [--gasprice W256]
[--create] [--maxcodesize W256] [--prev-randao W256]
[--chainid W256] [--rpc TEXT] [--block W256]
[--root STRING] [--project-type PROJECTTYPE]
[--initial-storage INITIALSTORAGE] [--sig TEXT]
[--arg STRING]... [--get-models] [--show-tree]
[--show-reachable-tree] [--smttimeout NATURAL]
[--max-iterations INTEGER] [--solver TEXT] [--smtdebug]
[--assertions [WORD256]] [--ask-smt-iterations INTEGER]
[--num-solvers NATURAL]
[--loop-detection-heuristic LOOPHEURISTIC]
Available options:
-h,--help Show this help text
--code TEXT Program bytecode
--calldata TEXT Tx: calldata
--address ADDR Tx: address
--caller ADDR Tx: caller
--origin ADDR Tx: origin
--coinbase ADDR Block: coinbase
--value W256 Tx: Eth amount
--nonce WORD64 Nonce of origin
--gas WORD64 Tx: gas amount
--number W256 Block: number
--timestamp W256 Block: timestamp
--basefee W256 Block: base fee
--priority-fee W256 Tx: priority fee
--gaslimit WORD64 Tx: gas limit
--gasprice W256 Tx: gas price
--create Tx: creation
--maxcodesize W256 Block: max code size
--prev-randao W256 Block: prevRandao
--chainid W256 Env: chainId
--rpc TEXT Fetch state from a remote node
--block W256 Block state is be fetched from
--root STRING Path to project root directory (default: . )
--project-type PROJECTTYPE
Is this a Foundry or DappTools project (default:
Foundry)
--initial-storage INITIALSTORAGE
Starting state for storage: Empty, Abstract (default
Abstract)
--sig TEXT Signature of types to decode / encode
--arg STRING Values to encode
--get-models Print example testcase for each execution path
--show-tree Print branches explored in tree view
--show-reachable-tree Print only reachable branches explored in tree view
--smttimeout NATURAL Timeout given to SMT solver in seconds (default: 300)
--max-iterations INTEGER Number of times we may revisit a particular branching
point
--solver TEXT Used SMT solver: z3 (default), cvc5, or bitwuzla
--smtdebug Print smt queries sent to the solver
--assertions [WORD256] Comma separated list of solc panic codes to check for
(default: user defined assertion violations only)
--ask-smt-iterations INTEGER
Number of times we may revisit a particular branching
point before we consult the smt solver to check
reachability (default: 1) (default: 1)
--num-solvers NATURAL Number of solver instances to use (default: number of
cpu cores)
--loop-detection-heuristic LOOPHEURISTIC
Which heuristic should be used to determine if we are
in a loop: StackBased (default) or Naive
(default: StackBased)
Run a symbolic execution against the given parameters, searching for assertion violations.
Counterexamples will be returned for any reachable assertion violations. Where
an assertion violation is defined as either an execution of the invalid opcode
(0xfe
), or a revert with a message of the form
abi.encodeWithSelector('Panic(uint256)', errCode)
with errCode
being one of
the predefined solc assertion codes defined
here.
By default hevm ignores assertion violations that result from arithmetic
overflow (Panic(0x11)
), although this behaviour can be customised via the
--assertions
flag. For example, the following will return counterexamples for
arithmetic overflow (0x11
) and user defined assertions (0x01
):
hevm symbolic --code $CODE --assertions '[0x01, 0x11]'
The default value for calldata
and caller
are symbolic values, but can be specialized to concrete functions with their corresponding flags.
One can also specialize specific arguments to a function signature, while
leaving others abstract. If --sig
is given, calldata is assumed to be of the
form suggested by the function signature. With this flag, specific arguments
can be instantiated to concrete values via the --arg
flag.
This is best illustrated through a few examples:
Calldata specialized to the bytestring 0xa9059cbb
followed by 64 symbolic bytes:
hevm symbolic --sig "transfer(address,uint256)" --code $(<dstoken.bin-runtime)
Calldata specialized to the bytestring
0xa9059cbb0000000000000000000000007cfa93148b0b13d88c1dce8880bd4e175fb0dedf
followed by 32 symbolic bytes.
hevm symbolic --sig "transfer(address,uint256)" --arg 0x7cFA93148B0B13d88c1DcE8880bd4e175fb0DeDF --code $(<dstoken.bin-runtime)
Calldata specialized to the bytestring 0xa9059cbb
followed by 32 symbolic
bytes, followed by the bytestring
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
:
hevm symbolic --sig "transfer(address,uint256)" --arg "<symbolic>" --arg 0 --code $(<dstoken.bin-runtime)
If the --get-models
flag is given, example input values will be returned for
each possible execution path. This can be useful for automatic test case
generation.
The default timeout for SMT queries is no timeout. If your program is taking
longer than a couple of minutes to run, you can experiment with configuring the
timeout to somewhere around 10s by doing --smttimeout 10000
Storage can be initialized in two ways:
Empty
: all storage slots for all contracts are initialized to zeroAbstract
: all storage slots are initialized as unconstrained abstract values
hevm
uses an eager approach for symbolic execution, meaning that it will
first attempt to explore all branches in the program (without querying the smt
solver to check if they are reachable or not). Once the full execution tree has
been explored, the postcondition is checked against all leaves, and the solver
is invoked to check reachability for branches where a postcondition violation
could occur. While our tests have shown this approach to be significantly
faster, when applied without limits it would always result in infinite
exploration of code involving loops, so after some predefined number of
iterations (controlled by the --ask-smt-iterations
flag), the solver will be
invoked to check whether a given loop branch is reachable. In cases where the
number of loop iterations is known in advance, you may be able to speed up
execution by setting this flag to an appropriate value.
hevm equivalence
Usage: hevm equivalence --code-a TEXT --code-b TEXT [--sig TEXT]
[--arg STRING]... [--calldata TEXT]
[--smttimeout NATURAL] [--max-iterations INTEGER]
[--solver TEXT] [--smtoutput] [--smtdebug] [--debug]
[--trace] [--ask-smt-iterations INTEGER]
[--num-cex-fuzz INTEGER]
[--loop-detection-heuristic LOOPHEURISTIC]
[--abstract-arithmetic] [--abstract-memory]
Available options:
-h,--help Show this help text
--code-a TEXT Bytecode of the first program
--code-b TEXT Bytecode of the second program
--sig TEXT Signature of types to decode / encode
--arg STRING Values to encode
--calldata TEXT Tx: calldata
--smttimeout NATURAL Timeout given to SMT solver in seconds (default: 300)
--max-iterations INTEGER Number of times we may revisit a particular branching
point
--solver TEXT Used SMT solver: z3 (default), cvc5, or bitwuzla
--smtoutput Print verbose smt output
--smtdebug Print smt queries sent to the solver
--debug Debug printing of internal behaviour
--trace Dump trace
--ask-smt-iterations INTEGER
Number of times we may revisit a particular branching
point before we consult the smt solver to check
reachability (default: 1) (default: 1)
--num-cex-fuzz INTEGER Number of fuzzing tries to do to generate a
counterexample (default: 3) (default: 3)
--loop-detection-heuristic LOOPHEURISTIC
Which heuristic should be used to determine if we are
in a loop: StackBased (default) or Naive
(default: StackBased)
--abstract-arithmetic Use abstraction-refinement for complicated arithmetic
functions such as MulMod. This runs the solver first
with abstraction turned on, and if it returns a
potential counterexample, the counterexample is
refined to make sure it is a counterexample for the
actual (not the abstracted) problem
--abstract-memory Use abstraction-refinement for Memory. This runs the
solver first with abstraction turned on, and if it
returns a potential counterexample, the
counterexample is refined to make sure it is a
counterexample for the actual (not the abstracted)
problem
Symbolically execute both the code given in --code-a
and --code-b
and try
to prove equivalence between their outputs and storages. Extracting bytecode
from solidity contracts can be done via, e.g.:
hevm equivalence \
--code-a $(solc --bin-runtime "contract1.sol" | tail -n1) \
--code-b $(solc --bin-runtime "contract2.sol" | tail -n1)
If --sig
is given, calldata is assumed to take the form of the function
given. If left out, calldata is a fully abstract buffer of at most 256 bytes.
hevm exec
Run an EVM computation using specified parameters, using an interactive debugger when --debug
flag is given.
Usage: hevm exec [--code TEXT] [--calldata TEXT] [--address ADDR]
[--caller ADDR] [--origin ADDR] [--coinbase ADDR]
[--value W256] [--nonce WORD64] [--gas WORD64] [--number W256]
[--timestamp W256] [--basefee W256] [--priority-fee W256]
[--gaslimit WORD64] [--gasprice W256] [--create]
[--maxcodesize W256] [--prev-randao W256] [--chainid W256]
[--debug] [--trace] [--rpc TEXT] [--block W256] [--root STRING]
[--project-type PROJECTTYPE]
Available options:
-h,--help Show this help text
--code TEXT Program bytecode
--calldata TEXT Tx: calldata
--address ADDR Tx: address
--caller ADDR Tx: caller
--origin ADDR Tx: origin
--coinbase ADDR Block: coinbase
--value W256 Tx: Eth amount
--nonce WORD64 Nonce of origin
--gas WORD64 Tx: gas amount
--number W256 Block: number
--timestamp W256 Block: timestamp
--basefee W256 Block: base fee
--priority-fee W256 Tx: priority fee
--gaslimit WORD64 Tx: gas limit
--gasprice W256 Tx: gas price
--create Tx: creation
--maxcodesize W256 Block: max code size
--prev-randao W256 Block: prevRandao
--chainid W256 Env: chainId
--debug Debug printing of internal behaviour
--trace Dump trace
--rpc TEXT Fetch state from a remote node
--block W256 Block state is be fetched from
--root STRING Path to project root directory (default: . )
--project-type PROJECTTYPE
Is this a Foundry or DappTools project (default:
Foundry)
Minimum required flags: either you must provide --code
or you must both pass
--rpc
and --address
.
If the execution returns an output, it will be written to stdout. Exit code indicates whether the execution was successful or errored/reverted.
Simple example usage:
hevm exec --code 0x647175696e6550383480393834f3 --gas 0xff
"Return: 0x647175696e6550383480393834f3"
Which says that given the EVM bytecode 0x647175696e6550383480393834f3
, the Ethereum
Virtual Machine will put 0x647175696e6550383480393834f3
in the RETURNDATA.
To execute a mainnet transaction:
# install seth as per
# https://github.com/makerdao/developerguides/blob/master/devtools/seth/seth-guide/seth-guide.md
$ export ETH_RPC_URL=https://mainnet.infura.io/v3/YOUR_API_KEY_HERE
$ export TXHASH=0xd2235b9554e51e8ff5b3de62039d5ab6e591164b593d892e42b2ffe0e3e4e426
hevm exec --caller $(seth tx $TXHASH from) --address $(seth tx $TXHASH to) \
--calldata $(seth tx $TXHASH input) --rpc $ETH_RPC_URL \
--block $(($(seth tx $TXHASH blockNumber)-1)) --gas $(seth tx $TXHASH gas)