No More Hidden Pitfalls? Exposing Smart Contract Bad Practices with LLM-Powered Hybrid Analysis

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Main Authors: Li, Xiaoqi, Li, Zongwei, Li, Wenkai, Zhang, Yuqing, Wang, Xin
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Li, Xiaoqi
Li, Zongwei
Li, Wenkai
Zhang, Yuqing
Wang, Xin
author_facet Li, Xiaoqi
Li, Zongwei
Li, Wenkai
Zhang, Yuqing
Wang, Xin
contents As the Ethereum platform continues to mature and gain widespread usage, it is crucial to maintain high standards of smart contract writing practices. While bad practices in smart contracts may not directly lead to security issues, they elevate the risk of encountering problems. Therefore, to understand and avoid these bad practices, this paper introduces the first systematic study of bad practices in smart contracts, delving into over 47 specific issues. Specifically, we propose SCALM, an LLM-powered framework featuring two methodological innovations: (1) A hybrid architecture that combines context-aware function-level slicing with knowledge-enhanced semantic reasoning via extensible vectorized pattern matching. (2) A multi-layer reasoning verification system connects low-level code patterns with high-level security principles through syntax, design patterns, and architecture analysis. Our extensive experiments using multiple LLMs and datasets have shown that SCALM outperforms existing tools in detecting bad practices in smart contracts.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_15179
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle No More Hidden Pitfalls? Exposing Smart Contract Bad Practices with LLM-Powered Hybrid Analysis
Li, Xiaoqi
Li, Zongwei
Li, Wenkai
Zhang, Yuqing
Wang, Xin
Cryptography and Security
As the Ethereum platform continues to mature and gain widespread usage, it is crucial to maintain high standards of smart contract writing practices. While bad practices in smart contracts may not directly lead to security issues, they elevate the risk of encountering problems. Therefore, to understand and avoid these bad practices, this paper introduces the first systematic study of bad practices in smart contracts, delving into over 47 specific issues. Specifically, we propose SCALM, an LLM-powered framework featuring two methodological innovations: (1) A hybrid architecture that combines context-aware function-level slicing with knowledge-enhanced semantic reasoning via extensible vectorized pattern matching. (2) A multi-layer reasoning verification system connects low-level code patterns with high-level security principles through syntax, design patterns, and architecture analysis. Our extensive experiments using multiple LLMs and datasets have shown that SCALM outperforms existing tools in detecting bad practices in smart contracts.
title No More Hidden Pitfalls? Exposing Smart Contract Bad Practices with LLM-Powered Hybrid Analysis
topic Cryptography and Security
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.15179