Puppy Raffle

AI First Flight #1
Beginner FriendlyFoundrySolidityNFT
EXP
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Submission Details
Severity: medium
Valid

Inefficient Duplicate Detection Using Bubble Sort

Root + Impact
The enterRaffle function uses a nested loop to check for duplicate addresses, which creates O(n²) time complexity. Each call to enterRaffle iterates through all previously entered players, making the function increasingly expensive as more players enter the raffle.

Description

  • The normal behavior is for players to enter the raffle by calling enterRaffle with an array of addresses, paying the entrance fee for each address.

The issue is that the duplicate check uses a nested loop comparing every player against every other player, resulting in quadratic gas consumption that becomes prohibitive once the players array grows large.

// Root cause in the codebase with @> marks to highlight the relevant section
for (uint256 i = 0; i < newPlayers.length; i++) {
players.push(newPlayers[i]);
}
// Check for duplicates
@> for (uint256 i = 0; i < players.length - 1; i++) {
@> for (uint256 j = i + 1; j < players.length; j++) {
@> require(players[i] != players[j], "PuppyRaffle: Duplicate player");
@> }
@> }

Risk

Likelihood:

  • The raffle will accumulate players over time through multiple enterRaffle calls, causing the O(n²) check to consume exponentially more gas with each call

  • Even with a moderate number of players (e.g., 100-200), the duplicate check will become extremely expensive or hit gas limits

Impact:

  • Legitimate players will be unable to enter the raffle due to excessive gas consumption

  • The function will eventually fail when the players array reaches a certain size

  • Protocol becomes unusable as it scales

Proof of Concept

// After 100 players have entered, attempting to add 10 more players requires:
// - 100 comparisons for player 1
// - 101 comparisons for player 2
// - ...
// - 109 comparisons for player 10
// Total: ~1000+ comparisons for a single enterRaffle call

Recommended Mitigation

// Add a mapping to track active players in the current raffle
mapping(address => bool) private isActivePlayer;
function enterRaffle(address[] memory newPlayers) public payable {
require(msg.value == entranceFee * newPlayers.length, "PuppyRaffle: Must send enough to enter raffle");
for (uint256 i = 0; i < newPlayers.length; i++) {
require(!isActivePlayer[newPlayers[i]], "PuppyRaffle: Duplicate player");
players.push(newPlayers[i]);
isActivePlayer[newPlayers[i]] = true;
}
emit RaffleEnter(newPlayers);
}
// Clear the mapping when resetting for the next raffle in selectWinner()
- delete players;
+ for (uint256 i = 0; i < players.length; i++) {
+ isActivePlayer[players[i]] = false;
+ }
+ delete players;
Updates

Lead Judging Commences

ai-first-flight-judge Lead Judge about 8 hours ago
Submission Judgement Published
Validated
Assigned finding tags:

[M-01] `PuppyRaffle: enterRaffle` Use of gas extensive duplicate check leads to Denial of Service, making subsequent participants to spend much more gas than prev ones to enter

## Description `enterRaffle` function uses gas inefficient duplicate check that causes leads to Denial of Service, making subsequent participants to spend much more gas than previous users to enter. ## Vulnerability Details In the `enterRaffle` function, to check duplicates, it loops through the `players` array. As the `player` array grows, it will make more checks, which leads the later user to pay more gas than the earlier one. More users in the Raffle, more checks a user have to make leads to pay more gas. ## Impact As the arrays grows significantly over time, it will make the function unusable due to block gas limit. This is not a fair approach and lead to bad user experience. ## POC In existing test suit, add this test to see the difference b/w gas for users. once added run `forge test --match-test testEnterRaffleIsGasInefficient -vvvvv` in terminal. you will be able to see logs in terminal. ```solidity function testEnterRaffleIsGasInefficient() public { vm.startPrank(owner); vm.txGasPrice(1); /// First we enter 100 participants uint256 firstBatch = 100; address[] memory firstBatchPlayers = new address[](firstBatch); for(uint256 i = 0; i < firstBatchPlayers; i++) { firstBatch[i] = address(i); } uint256 gasStart = gasleft(); puppyRaffle.enterRaffle{value: entranceFee * firstBatch}(firstBatchPlayers); uint256 gasEnd = gasleft(); uint256 gasUsedForFirstBatch = (gasStart - gasEnd) * txPrice; console.log("Gas cost of the first 100 partipants is:", gasUsedForFirstBatch); /// Now we enter 100 more participants uint256 secondBatch = 200; address[] memory secondBatchPlayers = new address[](secondBatch); for(uint256 i = 100; i < secondBatchPlayers; i++) { secondBatch[i] = address(i); } gasStart = gasleft(); puppyRaffle.enterRaffle{value: entranceFee * secondBatch}(secondBatchPlayers); gasEnd = gasleft(); uint256 gasUsedForSecondBatch = (gasStart - gasEnd) * txPrice; console.log("Gas cost of the next 100 participant is:", gasUsedForSecondBatch); vm.stopPrank(owner); } ``` ## Recommendations Here are some of recommendations, any one of that can be used to mitigate this risk. 1. User a mapping to check duplicates. For this approach you to declare a variable `uint256 raffleID`, that way each raffle will have unique id. Add a mapping from player address to raffle id to keep of users for particular round. ```diff + uint256 public raffleID; + mapping (address => uint256) public usersToRaffleId; . . function enterRaffle(address[] memory newPlayers) public payable { require(msg.value == entranceFee * newPlayers.length, "PuppyRaffle: Must send enough to enter raffle"); for (uint256 i = 0; i < newPlayers.length; i++) { players.push(newPlayers[i]); + usersToRaffleId[newPlayers[i]] = true; } // Check for duplicates + for (uint256 i = 0; i < newPlayers.length; i++){ + require(usersToRaffleId[i] != raffleID, "PuppyRaffle: Already a participant"); - for (uint256 i = 0; i < players.length - 1; i++) { - for (uint256 j = i + 1; j < players.length; j++) { - require(players[i] != players[j], "PuppyRaffle: Duplicate player"); - } } emit RaffleEnter(newPlayers); } . . . function selectWinner() external { //Existing code + raffleID = raffleID + 1; } ``` 2. Allow duplicates participants, As technically you can't stop people participants more than once. As players can use new address to enter. ```solidity function enterRaffle(address[] memory newPlayers) public payable { require(msg.value == entranceFee * newPlayers.length, "PuppyRaffle: Must send enough to enter raffle"); for (uint256 i = 0; i < newPlayers.length; i++) { players.push(newPlayers[i]); } emit RaffleEnter(newPlayers); } ```

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