Partnership Overview
Client
Codex
Platform
Codex Blockchain
Service
Penetration Testing
Scope
Payment Order Processing Infrastructure
About Codex
Codex is building next-generation payment processing infrastructure that bridges traditional finance with blockchain technology. Their platform handles complex order workflows including deposit settlement, fiat payouts, and multi-tenant operations through a sophisticated workflow orchestration system. The platform integrates with external payment providers like OpenPayd and Fireblocks to enable seamless crypto-to-fiat and fiat-to-crypto transactions for their users.
Security Requirements
As Codex scales their payment infrastructure to handle growing transaction volumes, ensuring the security and reliability of their order processing system is critical. Payment platforms require robust protection against workflow manipulation, state divergence, and denial-of-service attacks that could impact fund settlement.
The engagement scope encompassed Codex's order creation API, core workflow orchestration, deposit settlement activities, external API integrations, and compliance webhook handling—covering the complete payment processing lifecycle.
Testing Methodology
FailSafe's security team conducted a comprehensive penetration testing engagement combining industry-standard frameworks (OWASP, NIST, PTES) with blockchain-specific threat modeling:
Transaction Atomicity Analysis
Deep analysis of database transaction boundaries and workflow signal broadcasting to identify state divergence risks that could lead to fund discrepancies or stuck settlements.
Workflow Orchestration Security
Assessment of Temporal workflow patterns including signal handling, timeout mechanisms, and replay protection to prevent resource exhaustion and DoS scenarios.
Multi-Tenant Architecture Review
Evaluation of tenant isolation boundaries, organization context handling in webhook processing, and defense-in-depth patterns for cross-tenant data protection.
External API Resilience Testing
Testing of circuit breaker patterns and failure handling for external payment provider dependencies (Fireblocks, OpenPayd) to ensure graceful degradation during outages.
Confidential Partnership
In accordance with Codex's security and business requirements, the detailed findings and specific vulnerabilities identified during this penetration testing engagement remain confidential. Our partnership focused on identifying and remediating security issues across multiple severity levels.
The engagement identified findings across multiple severity levels related to workflow orchestration, system architecture, and integration patterns. The Codex team demonstrated a commendable commitment to maintaining high security standards throughout the remediation process.
Partnership Impact
Through close collaboration with Codex's development team, FailSafe provided comprehensive security guidance that strengthened the platform's payment infrastructure. The engagement covered:
- Transactional outbox patterns to ensure atomicity between database commits and workflow signal broadcasting, preventing fund discrepancies
- Maximum timeout implementations for workflow signal waiting to prevent indefinite hangs and resource exhaustion attacks
- Circuit breaker configurations for external API dependencies to enable graceful degradation during payment provider outages
- Consistent signal replay protection across all workflow handlers to prevent state corruption and duplicate operations
Interested in Learning More?
If you're building payment processing infrastructure, order management systems, or workflow orchestration platforms and need comprehensive penetration testing, our team can share more about our approach and how we've helped projects like Codex secure their platforms.
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