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Audit name:

[SCA] S3 Markets | S3 EAC Ledger | Jan2026

Date:

Feb 6, 2026

Table of Content

Introduction
Audit Summary
System Overview
Potential Risks
Findings
Appendix 1. Definitions
Appendix 2. Scope
Appendix 3. Additional Valuables
Disclaimer

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Introduction

We express our gratitude to the S3 Markets team for the collaborative engagement that enabled the execution of this Smart Contract Security Assessment.

S3 contracts are smart contracts for environmental attribute certificates (ERC-1155), custody, transfer gating, and paymaster flows.

Document

NameSmart Contract Code Review and Security Analysis Report for S3 Markets
Audited ByTurgay Arda Usman, Khrystyna Tkachuk
Approved ByPanagiotis Konstantinidis
Websitehttps://www.s3markets.com/
Changelog22/01/2026 - Preliminary Report
04/02/2026 - Second Report
06/02/2026 - Final Report
PlatformEVM
LanguageSolidity
TagsERC1155, Vault, Upgradable
Methodologyhttps://docs.hacken.io/methodologies/smart-contracts

Review Scope

Repositoryhttps://github.com/S3-Markets/s3block
Initial Commit1df2037
Final Commit00fc907

Audit Summary

19Total Findings
19Resolved
0Accepted
0Mitigated

The system users should acknowledge all the risks summed up in the risks section of the report

{Finding_Table?columns=title,severity,status&setting.filter.type=Vulnerability}

Documentation quality

  • Functional requirements are partially provided.

  • Technical description is provided.

Code quality

  • The code partially follows best practices  and style guides:

    • See informational findings for more details.

  • The development environment is configured.

Test coverage

Code coverage of the project is 86.63% (branch coverage).

  • Deployment and basic user interactions are covered with tests.

  • Negative cases coverage is present.

  • Interactions by several users are not tested.

System Overview

S3 contracts are smart contracts for environmental attribute certificates (ERC-1155), custody, transfer gating, and paymaster flows. It contains the following contracts:

EAC1155 — ERC-1155 token with supply caps, roles, and transfer gating

CustodyVault — Custody, allocation, and retirement of tokens (the only upgradeable contract)

UUPSProxy — UUPS proxy contract

TransferGate — Allow-list for wallet-to-wallet transfers

Privileged roles

  • The OPS_ROLE of the CustodyVault.sol contract canmanage vault operations.

  • The DEFAULT_ADMIN_ROLE of the CustodyVault.sol contract can set a token address.

  • The DEFAULT_ADMIN_ROLE of the CustodyVault.sol contract can grant / revoke all other roles.

  • The ISSUER_ROLE of the EAC1155.sol contract can create token Ids, mint tokens, and set transfer gates.

  • The BURNER_ROLE of the EAC1155.sol contract can burn or retire tokens.

  • The PASUER_ROLE of the EAC1155.sol contract can manager emergency pause mechanism.

  • The GATE_ADMIN of the TransferGate.sol contract can set transfer permissions.

  • The DEFAULT_ADMIN_ROLE of the TransferGate.sol contract can grant / revoke all other roles.

Potential Risks

Concentrated minting authority: The EAC1155 token design gives a single administrative role broad discretion over minting, including the ability to mint not only to the CustodyVault but also to other addresses. While this may be intended for operational flexibility, it increases reliance on internal controls and governance processes to prevent unexpected issuance that could impact token supply expectations and stakeholder confidence. Dynamic Array Iteration Gas Limit Risks: The project iterates over large dynamic arrays, which leads to excessive gas costs, risking denial of service due to out-of-gas errors, directly impacting contract usability and reliability. Single Points of Failure and Control: Parts of the system rely on a limited set of privileged roles and operational processes. This concentration can simplify coordination, but it also means overall availability and decision execution may depend on a small number of entities, increasing sensitivity to operational issues or targeted compromise. Flexibility and Risk in Contract Upgrades: The CustodyVault contract is upgradeable, which can be beneficial for maintenance, improvements, and responding to issues. At the same time, upgrades introduce an additional governance and security requirement: users and integrators must rely on the upgrade process being appropriately restricted, reviewed, and transparently managed to reduce the risk of unexpected or unauthorized changes. Token Metadata and URI Modification Authority: The EAC1155 admin is able to update token URIs after issuance. The project design binds each tokenId at mint time to a cryptographic metadata hash, making any substantive modification to metadata content externally detectable through a hash mismatch. This provides an important integrity signal and limits the ability to alter the semantic meaning of an issued EAC without detection. At the same time, URI-level updates still influence how metadata is resolved, displayed, and interpreted by wallets, marketplaces, and other consumers. As a result, changes to hosting, structure, or presentation may affect user perception and integration behavior over time. Clearly defining the intended scope of URI updates and making the hash-binding mechanism easy to observe helps ensure consistent expectations and reduces ambiguity for token holders and integrators. Coarse-grained Authorization Model Risks: The authorization model grants broad permissions to certain addresses. If any privileged key is compromised, the potential impact could be significant, as an attacker may be able to perform high-impact actions. This makes privilege minimization and strong key management especially important. Owner’s Unrestricted State Modification: The owner has wide latitude to adjust state variables without explicit limitations. This can be useful for administration and responding to evolving needs, but it also increases the importance of transparency, well-defined governance, and change-management practices, particularly around sensitive phases such as minting or distribution, to maintain predictable behavior and user confidence.

Findings

Code
Title
Status
Severity
F-2026-1480Expired Tokens Permanently Trapped
fixed

High
F-2026-1479Funds Loss via Direct Transfer in CustodyVault
fixed

High
F-2026-1481Expired Tokens Permanently Locked Due to Burn Restriction
fixed

Medium
F-2026-1481Transfer Gate Bypassed by Non-Allowlisted Operators
fixed

Low
F-2026-1479Missing Zero Address Validation
fixed

Observation
F-2026-1479Floating Pragma
fixed

Observation
F-2026-1481Inactive Buyers Remain in _buyers Indefinitely
fixed

Observation
F-2026-1481Missing Validation Between Token Expiry and Market Entry Period
fixed

Observation
F-2026-1481Redundant Zero-Address Checks in Transfer Logic
fixed

Observation
F-2026-1481Missing supportsInterface Override
fixed

Observation
1-10 of 19 findings

Identify vulnerabilities in your smart contracts.

Appendix 1. Definitions

Severities

When auditing smart contracts, Hacken is using a risk-based approach that considers Likelihood, Impact, Exploitability and Complexity metrics to evaluate findings and score severities.

Reference on how risk scoring is done is available through the repository in our Github organization:

Severity

Description

Critical
Critical vulnerabilities are usually straightforward to exploit and can lead to the loss of user funds or contract state manipulation.

High
High vulnerabilities are usually harder to exploit, requiring specific conditions, or have a more limited scope, but can still lead to the loss of user funds or contract state manipulation.

Medium
Medium vulnerabilities are usually limited to state manipulations and, in most cases, cannot lead to asset loss. Contradictions and requirements violations. Major deviations from best practices are also in this category.

Low
Major deviations from best practices or major Gas inefficiency. These issues will not have a significant impact on code execution.
  • Severity

    Critical

    Description

    Critical vulnerabilities are usually straightforward to exploit and can lead to the loss of user funds or contract state manipulation.

    Severity

    High

    Description

    High vulnerabilities are usually harder to exploit, requiring specific conditions, or have a more limited scope, but can still lead to the loss of user funds or contract state manipulation.

    Severity

    Medium

    Description

    Medium vulnerabilities are usually limited to state manipulations and, in most cases, cannot lead to asset loss. Contradictions and requirements violations. Major deviations from best practices are also in this category.

    Severity

    Low

    Description

    Major deviations from best practices or major Gas inefficiency. These issues will not have a significant impact on code execution.

Potential Risks

The "Potential Risks" section identifies issues that are not direct security vulnerabilities but could still affect the project’s performance, reliability, or user trust. These risks arise from design choices, architectural decisions, or operational practices that, while not immediately exploitable, may lead to problems under certain conditions. Additionally, potential risks can impact the quality of the audit itself, as they may involve external factors or components beyond the scope of the audit, leading to incomplete assessments or oversight of key areas. This section aims to provide a broader perspective on factors that could affect the project's long-term security, functionality, and the comprehensiveness of the audit findings.

Appendix 2. Scope

The scope of the project includes the following smart contracts from the provided repository:

Scope Details

Repositoryhttps://github.com/S3-Markets/s3block
Initial Commit1df2037
Final Commit00fc907
WhitepaperN/A
RequirementsReadme.md
Technical RequirementsReadme.md

Assets in Scope

CustodyVault.sol - CustodyVault.sol
EAC1155.sol - EAC1155.sol
TransferGate.sol - TransferGate.sol
UUPSProxy.sol - UUPSProxy.sol

Appendix 3. Additional Valuables

Additional Recommendations

The smart contracts in the scope of this audit could benefit from the introduction of automatic emergency actions for critical activities, such as unauthorized operations like ownership changes or proxy upgrades, as well as unexpected fund manipulations, including large withdrawals or minting events. Adding such mechanisms would enable the protocol to react automatically to unusual activity, ensuring that the contract remains secure and functions as intended.

To improve functionality, these emergency actions could be designed to trigger under specific conditions, such as:

  • Detecting changes to ownership or critical permissions.

  • Monitoring large or unexpected transactions and minting events.

  • Pausing operations when irregularities are identified.

These enhancements would provide an added layer of security, making the contract more robust and better equipped to handle unexpected situations while maintaining smooth operations.

Frameworks and Methodologies

This security assessment was conducted in alignment with recognised penetration testing standards, methodologies and guidelines, including the NIST SP 800-115 – Technical Guide to Information Security Testing and Assessment , and the Penetration Testing Execution Standard (PTES) , These assets provide a structured foundation for planning, executing, and documenting technical evaluations such as vulnerability assessments, exploitation activities, and security code reviews. Hacken’s internal penetration testing methodology extends these principles to Web2 and Web3 environments to ensure consistency, repeatability, and verifiable outcomes.

Disclaimer

S3 Markets audit by Hacken