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168 changes: 168 additions & 0 deletions protocol/opcm-bytecode-verification.md
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# OPCM Bytecode Verification: Design Doc

| | |
| ------------------ | ---------- |
| Author | Maurelian |
| Created at | 2025-06-04 |
| Initial Reviewers | TBD |
| Need Approval From | TBD |
| Status | Draft |

## Purpose

Ensure that the contracts referenced in `OPContractsManager` (OPCM) are verifiably built from
trusted source code by introducing a bytecode verification step into the release process.

## Summary

We propose integrating the `VerifyOPCM.s.sol` Foundry script into the release process via
`op-deployer` to validate that deployed contract bytecode matches locally built artifacts. This
prevents accidental or malicious mismatches and establishes trust in deployments originating from a
known commit. The step will be automated in CI, and become part of the documented SDLC.

## Problem Statement + Context

Currently, there is no enforced mechanism to ensure that the OPCM used in an upgrade is built from a
trusted commit, which should be one labelled as an `op-contracts/vX.Y.Z` tag, and approved by
governance.

This creates a risk of human error or maliciousness leading to an upgrade performed by an incorrect
version of the OPCM (or the implementation contracts it sets). It also presents a risk of a failed
upgrade resulting from a misconfigured OPCM (ie. if any [constructor
vars](https://github.com/ethereum-optimism/optimism/blob/a10fd5259a3af9a465955b035e16f516327d51d5/packages/contracts-bedrock/src/L1/OPContractsManager.sol#L266-L269)
are set incorrectly).
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We need a strategy for ensuring that VerifyOPCM remains complete, so that if a new contract is added to the system, that will be identified.


We want to eliminate this risk by automating the [Contract's Release
Verification](https://www.notion.so/oplabs/Contracts-Release-Checklist-1f8f153ee162805e8236f022ebb8c868?source=copy_linkhttps:/)
process, making it easy to demonstrate that an OPCM at a given address corresponds to a trusted
commit.

The solution should be:

- contained within the release commit in the monorepo
- easily runnable locally with a single command accepting only an RPC URL and the address of the
OPCM
- runnable in CI in the `superchain-registry` repo
- incorporated into the upgrade process in a way that ensures it is run by multiple people

## Proposed Solution

### Bytecode verification against the local source

A new command should be added to `op-deployer`.

```
op-deployer verify-bytecode <opcm-address>

```

This command will invoke the `VerifyOPCM.s.sol` script's [default
entrypoint](https://github.com/ethereum-optimism/optimism/blob/158e990b76a85acbb018577bd4079190b2d97281/packages/contracts-bedrock/scripts/deploy/VerifyOPCM.s.sol#L126-L129)
to verify the OPCM.

```
op-deployer verify-bytecode --single-contract <contract-name> <contract-address>
```

This command will invoke the `VerifyOPCM.s.sol` script's [runSingle
entrypoint](https://github.com/ethereum-optimism/optimism/blob/158e990b76a85acbb018577bd4079190b2d97281/packages/contracts-bedrock/scripts/deploy/VerifyOPCM.s.sol#L135)
in order to verify any contracts involved in the upgrade which are not included in the OPCM (ie. the
new `DeputyPauseModule` introduced in upgrade 16).

### Artifacts source

By default, `op-deployer verify-bytecode` will use locally built forge-artifacts to check bytecode.
In order to facilitate quickly running in CI, without having to checkout and rebuild different
commits, the command will also accept a tag locator, with the following invocation:
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This seems contradictory to the Problem Statement, which states:

Currently, there is no enforced mechanism to ensure that the OPCM used in an upgrade is built from a
trusted commit, which should be one labelled as an `op-contracts/vX.Y.Z` tag, and approved by
governance.

If the above statement is true, it seems the command should default to verifying bytecode against an op-contracts git tag + remote artifacts and the flag should be --dangerously-use-local-artifacts

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In other words, which do we think is more dangerous: verifying bytecode against local or remote artifacts?


```
op-deployer verify-bytecode --dangerously-use-remote-artifacts --artifacts-locator tag://op-contracts/vX.Y.Z
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nit, could combine these two args?

Suggested change
op-deployer verify-bytecode --dangerously-use-remote-artifacts --artifacts-locator tag://op-contracts/vX.Y.Z
op-deployer verify-bytecode --dangerously-set-artifacts-locator tag://op-contracts/vX.Y.Z

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I somewhat prefer it as is because --artifacts-locator already exists, so we're just adding a new simple boolean flag, rather than a flag that is kind of an alternative to an existing one.


```

The flag `--dangerously-use-remote-artifacts` is intended to discourge the use of remote artifacts
when running locally, while still enabling a fast mechanism to run in CI.
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Ideally we want to be ensuring parity between:

  1. the remote tagged artifact
  2. the locally built artifact
  3. the actual deployed contract.

We should consider parallelization so that we can have that property in CI.

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worst case, have the local process be the more complete of the two.


### OPCM config verification

`op-deployer verify-bytecode` will require one of the following groups of arguments to confirm the
configuration of the OPCM.

Address flags:

```
--upgrade-controller 0x... \
--superchain-config 0x... \
--protocol-versions 0x... \
--superchain-proxy-admin 0x...
```

Superchain-registry flag:

```
--superchain-registry <path/to/registry>
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If this flag is passed, where are the addresses pulled from? Assuming we'd still need the following addresses:

  • upgrade-controller
  • superchain-config: from standard-versions-<network>.toml>
  • protocol-versions: from standard-versions-<network>.toml>
  • superchain-proxy-admin

```

The argument groups should be mutually exclusive, either all of the address flags or the
superchain-registry flag should be provided, but not both.

### Integration points

It is important to ensure that the bytecode verification process is run by multiple people and on
multiple different machines.
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Why is it important for multiple people to run this? What are the risks if only one person runs the verification?


The specific points that we should include the process are:

#### 1. Automated in superchain-registry CI (as discussed above).

For each `$TAG` listed in `standard-versions-[mainnet|sepolia].toml`, we should run the following
command:

```
op-deployer verify-bytecode \
--dangerously-use-remote-artifacts \
--artifacts-locator tag://$TAG \
--superchain-registry .
```
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Should this ci job only be triggered when the standard-versions-[mainnet|sepolia].toml files are modified?

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Yes, that makes sense.

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More detail:

  • scheduled job that looks at each tag in the SCR's standard-versions*.toml
  • uses tag locator to get artifacts
  • calculates checksum and artifacts hash
  • compares to those in standard.go

Ideally we begin storing these hashes in the SCR.


#### 2. Included in the [contracts release checklist](https://www.notion.so/oplabs/Contracts-Release-Checklist-1f8f153ee162805e8236f022ebb8c868?source=copy_link#1f8f153ee16280998c6bfa1140a5854d) process.

This should be run by no fewer than 3 people, on their own machines. The command used here should be
defined in a just recipe, which will do the following:

```
cd <path/to/monorepo>
git checkout <tag>
cd packages/contracts-bedrock
just build
cd ../../op-deployer
just build
./bin/op-deployer verify-bytecode --superchain-registry <path/to/local/registry>
```

Recall that this invocation of `op-deployer`, without the `--artifacts-locator`, will default to
using locally built artifacts.

#### 3. Additionally for consideration: run by signers during the upgrade process.

The command used here would be the same as the one used in the previous step.
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  1. Optional for signers but documented how to run opd verify-bytecode
  2. Need a process in ops repo CI to ensure that the opcm being used in the config.toml is the correct one for the upgrade tag.


### Resource Usage

N/A

## Single Point of Failure and Multi Client Considerations

N/A

## Impact on Developer Experience

- No impact on app developers.
- Protocol developers and release managers will have one additional verification step that is
largely automated.

## Risks & Uncertainties

- Reliance on Etherscan APIs.
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in order to remove this reliance, we need to get the initcode another way.
Can do that with binary search on create2 deployer calls.

- We exclude from this discussion the possibility that the code in the repo is malicious, and are
only concerned with verifying the bytecode against a monorepo commit and a