03 — Auditing · Failure mode

Soundness parameters weaker than assumed

Configuration yields materially fewer bits of security than the team believes — commonly through FRI parameters chosen against conjectured rather than provable bounds, insufficient query counts, or grinding parameters left at defaults.

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

Mitigation

Write down the target soundness in bits, state whether it relies on conjectured bounds, and have the parameter derivation reviewed as an artefact in its own right — not inferred from a configuration file.

Cite this page

MarketComp (2026). Soundness parameters weaker than assumed. The ZK Field Manual (Version 1.3). MarketComp. https://zkpick.com/audit/failure-modes/soundness-parameters-weaker-than-assumed/

@misc{zkfieldmanual-soundness-parameters-weaker-than-assumed,
  title        = {Soundness parameters weaker than assumed — The ZK Field Manual},
  author       = {MarketComp},
  year         = {2026},
  version      = {1.3},
  howpublished = {\url{https://zkpick.com/audit/failure-modes/soundness-parameters-weaker-than-assumed/}},
  note         = {Accessed: YYYY-MM-DD}
}