In response to the recent $270 million exploit of the Drift Protocol, the Solana Foundation has announced a series of security initiatives aimed at bolstering the security of Solana-based DeFi protocols. The centerpiece of this effort is Stride, a comprehensive evaluation program led by Asymmetric Research that will assess Solana DeFi protocols against eight key security pillars and publicly disclose its findings. Additionally, the Solana Incident Response Network (SIRN) has been established as a membership-based group of security firms and researchers focused on providing real-time crisis response. While these initiatives address some of the vulnerabilities exposed by the Drift exploit, they do not directly address the human element that was compromised, which was the primary cause of the loss.
The attackers had spent six months building relationships with Drift contributors and compromised their devices through malicious means. Under the Stride program, protocols with over $10 million in total value locked (TVL) that pass the evaluation will be eligible for ongoing operational security and active threat monitoring, funded by Solana Foundation grants.
Protocols with over $100 million in TVL will also be eligible for formal verification, a mathematical method that verifies the correctness of smart contracts. The SIRN network, which includes founding members such as OtterSec, Neodyme, Squads, and ZeroShadow, will be available to all Solana protocols, with priority given to those with higher TVL. The Solana Foundation has emphasized that these programs do not shift the responsibility for security away from the protocols themselves, highlighting the importance of individual contributor device security in preventing similar attacks in the future.