Native Programs Best Practices

Native code owns every security check. These practices keep programs small, readable, and resistant to common Solana exploits.

How to Use This List

• Review every new instruction against section A before merge.
• Maintain an account meta table in repo docs.
• Run cargo build-sbf and LiteSVM tests in CI.

A - Explicit Validation

• Document account order in a table per instruction. Clients and auditors share one source of truth.
• Validate signers before writable data mutations. Stops unauthorized state changes.
• Verify PDAs with canonical bumps stored on-chain. Blocks seed brute-force attacks.
• Reject duplicate pubkeys in token paths. Prevents balance manipulation.
• Load sysvars via typed getters, not passed accounts. Avoids fake sysvar injection.

B - Structure & Clarity

• One handler function per instruction variant. Simplifies audits and testing.
• Centralize parse + dispatch in processor module. Single entry for instruction bytes.
• Keep helpers pure where possible. Easier unit tests on host.
• Publish error code enum matching on-chain values. Clients decode failures consistently.
• Version instruction schema with explicit byte. Supports upgrades without ambiguity.

C - Deploy & Ops

• Pin solana-program SDK to Agave 4.1.1 toolchain. Reproducible builds.
• Produce verifiable build artifacts. Users trust deployed bytecode.
• Snapshot CU per instruction in tests. Regression detection.
• Minimize dependencies in program crate. Smaller attack and binary surface.
• Zero data on close; route rent deliberately. Prevents revival attacks.

FAQs

Related

• Manual Account Validation - Checklist details
• Rust for Solana Best Practices - Language habits
• Program Security Auditing - Audit prep

Stack versions: This page was written for Agave 4.1.1, Solana CLI 3.0.10, Anchor 0.32.1, anchor-lang 0.32.1, Rust 1.91.1, @solana/kit 7.0.0, Surfpool 0.12.0, and LiteSVM 0.6.x.