Foundry Book

Differential Testing

Forge can be used for differential testing and differential fuzzing. You can even test against non-EVM executables using the ffi cheatcode.

Background

Differential testing cross references multiple implementations of the same function by comparing each one’s output. Imagine we have a function specification F(X), and two implementations of that specification: f1(X) and f2(X). We expect f1(x) == f2(x) for all x that exist in an appropriate input space. If f1(x) != f2(x), we know that at least one function is incorrectly implementing F(X). This process of testing for equality and identifying discrepancies is the core of differential testing.

Differential fuzzing is an extension of differential testing. Differential fuzzing programmatically generates many values of x to find discrepancies and edge cases that manually chosen inputs might not reveal.

Note: the == operator in this case can be a custom definition of equality. For example, if testing floating point implementations, you might use approximate equality with a certain tolerance.

Some real life uses of this type of testing include:

• Comparing upgraded implementations to their predecessors
• Testing code against known reference implementations
• Confirming compatibility with third party tools and dependencies

Below are some examples of how Forge is used for differential testing.

Primer: The ffi cheatcode

ffi allows you to execute an arbitrary shell command and capture the output. Here’s a mock example:

import "forge-std/Test.sol";

contract TestContract is Test {

    function testMyFFI () public {
        string[] memory cmds = new string[](2);
        cmds[0] = "cat";
        cmds[1] = "address.txt"; // assume contains abi-encoded address.
        bytes memory result = vm.ffi(cmds);
        address loadedAddress = abi.decode(result, (address));
        // Do something with the address
        // ...
    }
}

An address has previously been written to address.txt, and we read it in using the FFI cheatcode. This data can now be used throughout your test contract.

Example: Differential Testing Merkle Tree Implementations

Merkle Trees are a cryptographic commitment scheme frequently used in blockchain applications. Their popularity has led to a number of different implementations of Merkle Tree generators, provers, and verifiers. Merkle roots and proofs are often generated using a language like JavaScript or Python, while proof verification usually occurs on-chain in Solidity.

Murky is a complete implementation of Merkle roots, proofs, and verification in Solidity. Its test suite includes differential tests against OpenZeppelin’s Merkle proof library, as well as root generation tests against a reference JavaScript implementation. These tests are powered by Foundry’s fuzzing and ffi capabilities.

Differential fuzzing against a reference TypeScript implementation

Using the ffi cheatcode, Murky tests its own Merkle root implementation against a TypeScript implementation using data provided by Forge’s fuzzer:

function testMerkleRootMatchesJSImplementationFuzzed(bytes32[] memory leaves) public {
    vm.assume(leaves.length > 1);
    bytes memory packed = abi.encodePacked(leaves);
    string[] memory runJsInputs = new string[](8);

    // Build ffi command string
    runJsInputs[0] = 'npm';
    runJsInputs[1] = '--prefix';
    runJsInputs[2] = 'differential_testing/scripts/';
    runJsInputs[3] = '--silent';
    runJsInputs[4] = 'run';
    runJsInputs[5] = 'generate-root-cli';
    runJsInputs[6] = leaves.length.toString();
    runJsInputs[7] = packed.toHexString();

    // Run command and capture output
    bytes memory jsResult = vm.ffi(runJsInputs);
    bytes32 jsGeneratedRoot = abi.decode(jsResult, (bytes32));

    // Calculate root using Murky
    bytes32 murkyGeneratedRoot = m.getRoot(leaves);
    assertEq(murkyGeneratedRoot, jsGeneratedRoot);
}

Note: see Strings2.sol in the Murky Repo for the library that enables (bytes memory).toHexString()

Forge runs npm --prefix differential_testing/scripts/ --silent run generate-root-cli {numLeaves} {hexEncodedLeaves}. This calculates the Merkle root for the input data using the reference JavaScript implementation. The script prints the root to stdout, and that printout is captured as bytes in the return value of vm.ffi().

The test then calculates the root using the Solidity implementation.

Finally, the test asserts that the both roots are exactly equal. If they are not equal, the test fails.

Differential fuzzing against OpenZeppelin’s Merkle Proof Library

You may want to use differential testing against another Solidity implementation. In that case, ffi is not needed. Instead, the reference implementation is imported directly into the test.

import "openzeppelin-contracts/contracts/utils/cryptography/MerkleProof.sol";
//...
function testCompatibilityOpenZeppelinProver(bytes32[] memory _data, uint256 node) public {
    vm.assume(_data.length > 1);
    vm.assume(node < _data.length);
    bytes32 root = m.getRoot(_data);
    bytes32[] memory proof = m.getProof(_data, node);
    bytes32 valueToProve = _data[node];
    bool murkyVerified = m.verifyProof(root, proof, valueToProve);
    bool ozVerified = MerkleProof.verify(proof, root, valueToProve);
    assertTrue(murkyVerified == ozVerified);
}

Differential testing against a known edge case

Differential tests are not always fuzzed – they are also useful for testing known edge cases. In the case of the Murky codebase, the initial implementation of the log2ceil function did not work for certain arrays whose lengths were close to a power of 2 (like 129). As a safety check, a test is always run against an array of this length and compared to the TypeScript implementation. You can see the full test here.

Standardized Testing against reference data

FFI is also useful for injecting reproducible, standardized data into the testing environment. In the Murky library, this is used as a benchmark for gas snapshotting (see forge snapshot).

bytes32[100] data;
uint256[8] leaves = [4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42, 69, 88];

function setUp() public {
    string[] memory inputs = new string[](2);
    inputs[0] = "cat";
    inputs[1] = "src/test/standard_data/StandardInput.txt";
    bytes memory result =  vm.ffi(inputs);
    data = abi.decode(result, (bytes32[100]));
    m = new Merkle();
}

function testMerkleGenerateProofStandard() public view {
    bytes32[] memory _data = _getData();
    for (uint i = 0; i < leaves.length; ++i) {
        m.getProof(_data, leaves[i]);
    }
}

src/test/standard_data/StandardInput.txt is a text file that contains an encoded bytes32[100] array. It’s generated outside of the test and can be used in any language’s Web3 SDK. It looks something like:

0xf910ccaa307836354233316666386231414464306335333243453944383735313..423532

The standardized testing contract reads in the file using ffi. It decodes the data into an array and then, in this example, generates proofs for 8 different leaves. Because the data is constant and standard, we can meaningfully measure gas and performance improvements using this test.

Of course, one could just hardcode the array into the test! But that makes it much harder to do consistent testing across contracts, implementations, etc.

Example: Differential Testing Gradual Dutch Auctions

The reference implementation for Paradigm’s Gradual Dutch Auction mechanism contains a number of differential, fuzzed tests. It is an excellent repository to further explore differential testing using ffi.

• Differential tests for Discrete GDAs
• Differential tests for Continuous GDAs
• Reference Python implementation

Reference Repositories

• Gradual Dutch Auctions
• Murky
• Solidity Fuzzing Template

If you have another repository that would serve as a reference, please contribute it!