03 — Auditing · Failure mode

Missing range checks and field aliasing

Values are assumed to fit in a bit width that is never enforced, or a value near the field modulus wraps around so that two distinct field elements represent the same logical quantity. Comparisons, sums and Merkle indices then behave in ways the developer never considered.

By MarketComp Updated 2026-09-12 v1.3 About the authors Changelog

Mitigation

Enforce explicit range constraints on every externally influenced value, and check that decompositions into bits are both complete and canonical, rejecting non-canonical representations.

Cite this page

MarketComp (2026). Missing range checks and field aliasing. The ZK Field Manual (Version 1.3). MarketComp. https://zkpick.com/audit/failure-modes/missing-range-checks-and-field-aliasing/

@misc{zkfieldmanual-missing-range-checks-and-field-aliasing,
  title        = {Missing range checks and field aliasing — The ZK Field Manual},
  author       = {MarketComp},
  year         = {2026},
  version      = {1.3},
  howpublished = {\url{https://zkpick.com/audit/failure-modes/missing-range-checks-and-field-aliasing/}},
  note         = {Accessed: YYYY-MM-DD}
}