Disclaimer

Not investment advice

Root Cause is an educational publication about software defects. Nothing on this site is investment, financial, legal, or tax advice, and nothing here is a recommendation or solicitation to buy, sell, or hold any asset, token, or security. Digital assets carry significant risk, including the total loss of capital. Decisions you make about your own capital are yours alone.

Not a security audit

A teardown is a written analysis of a publicly disclosed defect. It is not a security audit, not a code review, and not a certification. Coverage of a protocol is not an endorsement of it; absence from this site says nothing about a protocol's safety. Reading a teardown creates no client, advisory, or fiduciary relationship of any kind.

The checklist is a prompt, not a guarantee

The self-audit checklist that accompanies each teardown is a starting point for your own review. It is deliberately short, it is not exhaustive, and passing every item guarantees nothing. You remain solely responsible for the security of the code you write, deploy, and operate. Where the stakes warrant it, engage a qualified professional.

Illustrative samples

Teardowns marked as illustrative samples describe fictional protocols and events that did not occur. Their transaction hashes are synthetic and link to nothing. They exist to demonstrate the format and must not be cited as accounts of real incidents.

Accuracy

We work from the chain, from published contract source, and from public disclosures, and we aim to be accurate. We cannot guarantee that every account is complete or current — understanding of an incident often improves after the fact. Teardowns are corrected in place, with the change noted. If you can show that a mechanism described here is wrong, tell us and we will fix it.

No offensive material

Teardowns describe vulnerability patterns and their standard remediations at the level of a security curriculum. They do not contain runnable exploits, proof-of-concept attack contracts, or instructions for reproducing an attack against any system. Nothing published here may be used to attack, probe, or interfere with a system you do not own or are not authorised to test.

Third-party links

We link to block explorers, repositories, and public disclosures operated by others. We do not control them and are not responsible for their content, accuracy, or availability.

No affiliation

We are not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by any protocol, exchange, or organisation discussed on this site. No teardown is sponsored, and no party pays to be covered or to be left out.

Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Root Cause Media Ltd accepts no liability for any loss — financial or otherwise — arising from use of, or reliance on, anything published here.

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