Puppy Raffle

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

Gas Limit DoS Attack Blocks New Raffle Entries

Scope: src/PuppyRaffle.sol

Root + Impact

The enterRaffle() function uses a nested loop O(n²) to check for duplicates. As the number of players grows, gas costs increase quadratically, eventually exceeding the block gas limit and making it impossible for new players to enter.

Description

  • Normal behavior: Players should be able to enter the raffle at any point before the winner is selected.

  • The issue: The duplicate check iterates through all existing players for each new player. With 100 players, this requires ~5,000 comparisons. Gas cost grows quadratically, making later entries prohibitively expensive or impossible.

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]);
}
// @> O(n²) nested loop - gas grows quadratically with player count
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:

  • An attacker fills the array with many addresses at low initial cost

  • First 100 entries cost normal gas, but entry 101+ costs 10x+ more

  • Attacker can refund their entries after blocking others

Impact:

  • New players cannot enter the raffle (transaction runs out of gas)

  • Protocol becomes unusable for legitimate users

  • Attacker improves their odds by blocking competition

Proof of Concept

Explanation: The test measures gas cost for the 1st player vs the 101st player. After 100 entries, the gas cost increases by more than 10x due to the O(n²) duplicate check. With more players, this reaches block gas limits, making entry impossible.

function testVuln4_DenialOfService() public {
vm.deal(address(this), 1000 ether);
// Measure gas for 1st player
address[] memory firstPlayer = new address[](1);
firstPlayer[0] = address(uint160(1000));
uint256 gasStart1 = gasleft();
puppyRaffle.enterRaffle{value: entranceFee}(firstPlayer);
uint256 gasUsed1 = gasStart1 - gasleft();
// Enter 99 more players
for (uint256 i = 1; i < 100; i++) {
address[] memory player = new address[](1);
player[0] = address(uint160(1000 + i));
puppyRaffle.enterRaffle{value: entranceFee}(player);
}
// Measure gas for 101st player
address[] memory player101 = new address[](1);
player101[0] = address(uint160(2000));
uint256 gasStart101 = gasleft();
puppyRaffle.enterRaffle{value: entranceFee}(player101);
uint256 gasUsed101 = gasStart101 - gasleft();
// Gas increased by >10x
assertTrue(gasUsed101 > gasUsed1 * 10);
}

Recommended Mitigation

Explanation: Use a mapping to track players in O(1) time instead of O(n²) nested loops. This makes gas cost constant regardless of player count.

+ mapping(address => bool) public isPlayer;
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(!isPlayer[newPlayers[i]], "PuppyRaffle: Duplicate player");
+ isPlayer[newPlayers[i]] = true;
players.push(newPlayers[i]);
}
- // Remove O(n²) loop
- 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");
- }
- }
}
Updates

Lead Judging Commences

ai-first-flight-judge Lead Judge about 5 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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