The Access Control Epidemic: Why Smart Contracts Keep Getting Hacked

Access control bugs represent the single largest source of smart contract losses, not because they're technically sophisticated but because they're deceptively simple—missing a single word in code can hand an entire contract to an attacker. These vulnerabilities are easy to introduce, easy to exploit, and frustratingly difficult to spot through visual inspection alone, making them far more damaging than complex exploits. For developers and auditors, understanding and systematically preventing access control patterns is now critical security practice.