An Anchor account type (UncheckedAccount<'info>) that performs no automatic validation — no owner check, no discriminator check, no deserialization. It is an alias for AccountInfo and should only be used when the program manually validates the account or when the account belongs to an external program. Requires a /// CHECK: doc comment explaining why it is safe. Misuse is a common audit finding.
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An Anchor account type (UncheckedAccount<'info>) that performs no automatic validation — no owner check, no discriminator check, no deserialization. It is an alias for AccountInfo and should only be used when the program manually validates the account or when the account belongs to an external program. Requires a /// CHECK: doc comment explaining why it is safe. Misuse is a common audit finding.
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Anchor, local validators, explorers, SDKs, and testing workflows.
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UncheckedAccount (Anchor) (unchecked-account) Category: Developer Tools Definition: An Anchor account type (UncheckedAccount<'info>) that performs no automatic validation — no owner check, no discriminator check, no deserialization. It is an alias for AccountInfo and should only be used when the program manually validates the account or when the account belongs to an external program. Requires a /// CHECK: doc comment explaining why it is safe. Misuse is a common audit finding. Aliases: AccountInfo wrapper Related: #[derive(Accounts)] (Anchor), Missing Owner Check, AccountInfo
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The Anchor macro that defines the accounts struct for an instruction. Each field specifies an account with validation constraints. Account types include: `Account<'info, T>` (deserialized), `Signer<'info>` (must sign), `Program<'info, T>` (program reference), `SystemAccount<'info>`, and `UncheckedAccount<'info>` (no validation, use carefully).
A vulnerability where a program deserializes and trusts account data without first confirming that the account is owned by the expected program, allowing an attacker to substitute a maliciously crafted account owned by a different program whose byte layout happens to satisfy the deserialization. On Solana, every account stores a 32-byte owner field set to the program that created it; native programs must assert account.owner == &expected_program_id, while Anchor's Account<'info, T> wrapper performs this check automatically. Failure to validate ownership can lead to complete auth bypass if an attacker can construct a fake account whose data parses into a struct with elevated privileges.
The runtime struct passed to programs for each account in an instruction: `AccountInfo { key, is_signer, is_writable, lamports, data, owner, executable, rent_epoch }`. In native programs, the entrypoint receives a slice of AccountInfos. Anchor abstracts this with typed account structs but AccountInfo is available via `to_account_info()`.
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The Anchor macro applied to structs to define on-chain account data layouts. `#[account]` auto-derives Borsh serialization, adds an 8-byte discriminator prefix (SHA-256 of 'account:<Name>'), and implements space calculation. Optional attributes: `#[account(zero_copy)]` for zero-copy deserialization of large accounts.
Anchor CLI commands for project lifecycle. `anchor init <name>` scaffolds a new project (program, tests, Anchor.toml). `anchor build` compiles to SBF and generates the IDL. `anchor test` builds, starts a local validator, deploys, and runs Mocha/Jest tests. `anchor deploy` deploys to the configured cluster. `anchor verify` checks deployed bytecode.
A major release (March 2025) of the Anchor framework introducing custom discriminators (overriding the default 8-byte discriminator to save transaction space), LazyAccount for on-demand deserialization to reduce compute costs, and stack memory optimizations for init constraints. Positioned as a major milestone on the roadmap toward v1.0.
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The Anchor macro that defines the accounts struct for an instruction. Each field specifies an account with validation constraints. Account types include: `Account<'info, T>` (deserialized), `Signer<'info>` (must sign), `Program<'info, T>` (program reference), `SystemAccount<'info>`, and `UncheckedAccount<'info>` (no validation, use carefully).
A vulnerability where a program deserializes and trusts account data without first confirming that the account is owned by the expected program, allowing an attacker to substitute a maliciously crafted account owned by a different program whose byte layout happens to satisfy the deserialization. On Solana, every account stores a 32-byte owner field set to the program that created it; native programs must assert account.owner == &expected_program_id, while Anchor's Account<'info, T> wrapper performs this check automatically. Failure to validate ownership can lead to complete auth bypass if an attacker can construct a fake account whose data parses into a struct with elevated privileges.
The runtime struct passed to programs for each account in an instruction: `AccountInfo { key, is_signer, is_writable, lamports, data, owner, executable, rent_epoch }`. In native programs, the entrypoint receives a slice of AccountInfos. Anchor abstracts this with typed account structs but AccountInfo is available via `to_account_info()`.
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The most popular framework for building Solana programs in Rust. Anchor provides macros (#[program], #[account], #[derive(Accounts)]) that auto-generate boilerplate for account validation, serialization, discriminators, and error handling. It includes a CLI (anchor init/build/test/deploy), IDL generation, and TypeScript client generation. Reduces program code by ~80% compared to native development.
The Anchor macro applied to structs to define on-chain account data layouts. `#[account]` auto-derives Borsh serialization, adds an 8-byte discriminator prefix (SHA-256 of 'account:<Name>'), and implements space calculation. Optional attributes: `#[account(zero_copy)]` for zero-copy deserialization of large accounts.
The Anchor macro that defines the accounts struct for an instruction. Each field specifies an account with validation constraints. Account types include: `Account<'info, T>` (deserialized), `Signer<'info>` (must sign), `Program<'info, T>` (program reference), `SystemAccount<'info>`, and `UncheckedAccount<'info>` (no validation, use carefully).
Declarative validation rules on Anchor account fields. Key constraints: `#[account(mut)]` (writable), `#[account(init, payer=x, space=n)]` (create), `#[account(seeds=[...], bump)]` (PDA validation), `#[account(has_one=field)]` (field equality), `#[account(constraint = expr)]` (custom boolean), `#[account(close=target)]` (close and reclaim rent).