Most DEXs are unsafe, alleges new report

 
In terms of cybersecurity, a recent study from Cer Live, a crypto exchange rating website, found that 14 of the top 25 decentralized exchanges, or DEXs, rated poorly.

The study looked at a number of specific issues facing most DEXs, including fake token listings, slippage prevalence, transaction confirmation delays, and a lack of details regarding listed trading pairs. They also investigated whether each exchange had been subject to security audits, provided bounties to facilitate the detection of vulnerabilities by the public, ensured sufficient end-to - end security, and more.

The evaluation then allocated a score ranging from 1-10 based on the overall safety of each venue. "Of the 25 exchanges evaluated, only two of the recorded DEXs earned a" high "safety score: Uniswap and Syntetyx. CER considered that any score above an 8 should be rated as" high. "Scores ranging from 6 to 8 were considered" good "and anything below a 6 was regarded as" poor "and, thus," unsafe.

For their auditing activities, CER called out low scoring exchanges, claiming that many failed to re-audit their offerings following recent additions to their code. For all exchanges whose audits were deemed to be out of date, the scores were reduced. Other exchanges have refused at all to issue public audits:

6 exchanges (24%) have not passed a security audit or have not publicly announced that they have been audited. It should be noted that it is not possible to deem an unaudited exchange secure.

Any of the 25 exchanges employed independent researchers to complete their audits rather than specialist firms, a practice that was strongly discouraged by the writers of the study. The researchers concluded that DEX users are usually more vulnerable to fraud than hacks, referring to the incredible growth of DeFi in the last few months:

"Despite the fact that, relative to centralized networks, there have not been any major hacks on decentralized exchanges, DEX users are actually more prone to malicious attacks."

Ultimately, the CER report found that 92 percent of the top 25 DEXs need to concentrate more on safety. In an attempt to maintain a secure trading atmosphere for their customers, they urged these exchanges to follow the latest best practices of the industry in the future.