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doc: add fault resolution ADR (#2051)
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Co-authored-by: Marius Poke <[email protected]>

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---------

Co-authored-by: Marius Poke <[email protected]>
Co-authored-by: MSalopek <[email protected]>
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131 changes: 131 additions & 0 deletions docs/docs/adrs/adr-022-fault-resolutions.md
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---
sidebar_position: 23
title: Fault Resolutions
---
# ADR 022: Fault Resolutions

## Changelog
* 17th July 2024: Initial draft

## Status

Proposed

## Context

Partial Set Security ([PSS](./adr-015-partial-set-security.md)) allows a subset of a provider chain's validator set to secure a consumer chain.
While this shared security scheme has many advantages, it comes with a risk known as the
[subset problem](https://informal.systems/blog/replicated-vs-mesh-security#risks-of-opt-in-security-also-known-as-ics-v-2).
This problem arises when a malicious majority of validators from the provider chain collude and misbehave on a consumer chain.
This threat is particularly relevant for Opt-in chains, since they might be secured by a relatively small subset of the provider's validator set.

In cases of collusion, various types of misbehaviour can be performed by the validators, such as:

* Incorrect executions to break protocol rules in order to steal funds.
* Liveness attacks to halt the chain or censor transactions.
* Oracle attacks to falsify information used by the chain logic.

Currently, these types of attacks aren't handled in PSS, leaving the malicious validators unpunished.

A potential solution for the handling of incorrect executions is to use fraud proofs.
This technology allows proving incorrect state transitions of a chain without a full node.
However, this is a complex technology and there is no framework that works for Cosmos chains to this day.


To address this risk in PSS, a governance-gated slashing solution can be used to handle all types of misbehavior resulting from validator collusion. As fraud proof technology matures, part of the solution could potentially be automated.


This ADR proposes a fault resolution mechanism, which is a type of governance proposal that can be used to vote on the slashing of validators that misbehave on Opt-in consumer chains (see [fault resolutions](https://forum.cosmos.network/t/preventing-intersubjective-faults-in-ics/14103#fault-resolutions-3) in "Preventing Intersubjective faults in ICS").

In what follows, we describe the implementation of a fault resolution mechanism for any intersubjective fault.
Note that in the first iteration, it is only incorrect executions that are defined as a fault and are therefore dealt with by the mechanism (see [Incorrect Executions](https://forum.cosmos.network/t/preventing-intersubjective-faults-in-ics/14103#incorrect-execution-fault-definition-5) in "Preventing Intersubjective faults in ICS").


## Decision

The proposed solution introduces a new `consumer-fault-resolution` governance proposal type to the `provider` module, which allows validators to be penalised for committing faults on an Opt-in consumer chain.

If such a proposal passes, the proposal handler tombstones all the validators listed in the proposal and slashes them by a per-consumer chain predefined
amount or the default value used for double-sign infractions.

The proposal has the following fields:

- **Consumer Chain**: The consumer chain ID that the fault was related to.
- **Validators**: The list of all the validators to be slashed.
- **Evidence**: A free text form.
- **Fault Type**: The fault definition type.
- **Description**: This field is automatically generated by aggregating the fault definition corresponding to the *Fault Type* and the *Evidence* fields.

Each fault type is mapped to a fault definition that precisely describes an intersubjective fault, such as an incorrect execution, and explains why it qualifies as a slashable fault. Refer to the [fault definitions section](https://forum.cosmos.network/t/preventing-intersubjective-faults-in-ics/14103#fault-definitions-4) in "Preventing Intersubjective faults in ICS" for more details. Note that the text of each fault definition is stored as a string constant in the provider code.


In addition, to prevent spamming, users must pay a default fee of `100ATOM` to submit a fault resolution to the provider.
This amount is stored in a new `consumer-fault-resolution-fee` parameter of the `provider` module.

### Validations

The submission of a fault resolution succeeds only if all of the following conditions are met:

- the consumer chain is an Opt-in chain
- all listed validators were opted-in to the consumer chain in the past unbonding-period
- the `100ATOM` fee is provided

### States

Additional states are added to the `provider` modules:

* The timestamps that record when validators opts in or opts out of a Opt-in consumer chain.
Note that these timestamps can be pruned after an unbonding period elapses following a validator's opts-out.

```golang
ConsumerValidatorSubscriptionTimestampPrefix | len(consumerID) | consumerID | valAddr | ProtocolBuffer(ConsumerValSubscriptionTimestamp)
```

```protobuf
messsage {
// timestamp recording the last time a validator opted in to the consumer chain
google.protobuf.Timestamp join_time = 1;
// timestamp recording the last time a validator opted out of the consumer chain
google.protobuf.Timestamp leave_time = 2;
}
```

* Pre-defined slashing factor per-consumer chain for each defined fault (optional).

```golang
ConsumerFaultSlashFactorPrefix | len(consumerID) | consumerID | faultType -> SlashFactor
```

### Additional considerations

Fault resolution proposals should be `expedited` to minimize the time given to the listed validators
to unbond to avoid punishment (see [Expedited Proposals](https://docs.cosmos.network/v0.50/build/modules/gov#expedited-proposals)) .


## Consequences

### Positive

- Provide the ability to slash and tombstone validators for committing incorrect executions on Opt-in consumer chains.

### Negative

- Assuming that malicious validators unbond immediately after misbehaving, a fault resolution has to be submitted within a maximum
of two weeks in order to slash the validators.

### Neutral

- Fault definitions need to have a clear framework in order to avoid debates about whether an attack has actually taken place.

## References

* [Preventing intersubjective faults in ICS](https://forum.cosmos.network/t/preventing-intersubjective-faults-in-ics/14103)

* [Enabling Opt-in and Mesh Security with Fraud Votes](https://forum.cosmos.network/t/enabling-opt-in-and-mesh-security-with-fraud-votes/10901)

* [CHIPs discussion phase: Partial Set Security](https://forum.cosmos.network/t/chips-discussion-phase-partial-set-security-updated/11775)

* [Replicated vs. Mesh Security](https://informal.systems/blog/replicated-vs-mesh-security#risks-of-opt-in-security-also-known-as-ics-v-2)



1 change: 1 addition & 0 deletions docs/docs/adrs/intro.md
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Expand Up @@ -50,6 +50,7 @@ To suggest an ADR, please make use of the [ADR template](https://github.com/cosm
- [ADR 011: Improving testing and increasing confidence](./adr-011-improving-test-confidence.md)
- [ADR 016: Security aggregation](./adr-016-securityaggregation.md)
- [ADR 021: Consumer Chain Clients](./adr-021-consumer-chain-clients.md)
- [ADR 022: Fault Resolutions](./adr-022-fault-resolutions.md)

### Rejected

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