{
  "type": "failure-mode",
  "name": "Auditing the circuit but not the protocol",
  "slug": "auditing-the-circuit-but-not-the-protocol",
  "section": {
    "id": "audit",
    "number": "03",
    "title": "Auditing a ZK protocol",
    "url": "https://zkpick.com/audit/"
  },
  "url": "https://zkpick.com/audit/failure-modes/auditing-the-circuit-but-not-the-protocol/",
  "markdown": "https://zkpick.com/md/audit/failure-modes/auditing-the-circuit-but-not-the-protocol.md",
  "detail": "Every constraint is correct and the system is still exploitable, because the statement being proved is the wrong one — front-running, griefing, economic manipulation, or a privacy leak through timing, amounts or graph structure that the proof faithfully preserves.",
  "mitigation": "Scope protocol-level review explicitly, including privacy leakage through metadata and side channels outside the proof, and review the specification's claims about what an adversary cannot learn.",
  "relatedOptions": [
    {
      "name": "Audit contests",
      "url": "https://zkpick.com/audit/audit-contests/"
    }
  ],
  "updated": "2026-09-12",
  "version": "1.3",
  "canonical": "https://zkpick.com/audit/failure-modes/auditing-the-circuit-but-not-the-protocol/",
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "authors": [
    "MarketComp"
  ]
}