The Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) is the execution environment that runs smart contracts (called "programs") on the Solana blockchain. Unlike the EVM, which processes transactions sequentially using a stack-based architecture, the SVM leverages a register-based model compiled to Solana Bytecode Format (SBF), a specialized variant of eBPF (extended Berkeley Packet Filter).

How the SVM differs from the EVM

The fundamental architectural difference is parallelism. The EVM processes transactions one at a time because contracts can read and write shared global state. The SVM requires every transaction to declare its account dependencies upfront, enabling the Sealevel runtime to execute non-conflicting transactions in parallel.

Account model

In the SVM, all state is stored in accounts. Programs themselves are stateless—they read from and write to accounts passed as instruction arguments. This design enables parallel execution but introduces unique attack surfaces like account injection, where a malicious actor passes unexpected accounts to a program.

Security implications for auditors

The SVM's stateless architecture shifts the auditor's focus from state-mutation patterns (like reentrancy in the EVM) to account validation and instruction data parsing. Key audit concerns include:

• Verifying account ownership and signer status
• Ensuring PDA derivation uses canonical bump seeds
• Validating Borsh deserialization boundaries to prevent type cosplay attacks
• Checking that Cross-Program Invocations (CPIs) correctly propagate signer privileges

The SVM is the foundation of Solana's high-throughput architecture and understanding its execution model is essential for any security researcher transitioning from EVM-based ecosystems.