Puppy Raffle

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

Denial of Service in `enterRaffle()`

Denial of Service via Unbounded Duplicate Check in enterRaffle()

Description

  • The enterRaffle() function allows users to enter the raffle by providing a list of participant addresses. The function pushes the new players into the players array and then checks for duplicate entries to ensure that each player appears only once.

    However, the duplicate check is implemented using a nested loop over the entire players array, which creates O(n²) time complexity.

    As the number of players increases, the gas cost of executing this function grows quadratically. This can eventually cause the transaction to exceed the block gas limit, preventing new players from entering the raffle.

// Root cause in the codebase with @> marks to highlight the relevant section
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"); //@> DOS may be happen
}
}

Since players continuously grows during the raffle lifecycle, the duplicate check can become increasingly expensive and may ultimately lead to a denial of service where no additional participants can join.

Risk

Likelihood: Medium

  • The players array grows with every raffle entry.

  • Users can submit large newPlayers arrays, increasing the computational cost of the duplicate check.

Impact: Medium

  • Transactions may fail due to exceeding the block gas limit.

  • New participants may be prevented from entering the raffle, effectively causing a denial of service.

Proof of Concept

A malicious user can submit a large array of participants to increase the size of players. As the array grows, the nested loop will require increasingly more gas to execute.

function attack(address raffle) external payable {
address[] manyPlayers = new address[](500);
for (uint i = 0; i < 500; i++) {
manyPlayers[i] = address(uint160(i + 1));
}
PuppyRaffle(raffle).enterRaffle{value: entranceFee * 500}(manyPlayers);
}

As the players array becomes large, future calls to enterRaffle() may exceed the block gas limit due to the quadratic duplicate check.

Recommended Mitigation

Use a mapping-based duplicate tracking mechanism instead of scanning the entire array.

This allows duplicate detection in O(1) time instead of O(n²).

+ mapping(address => bool) public isPlayer;
function enterRaffle(address[] memory newPlayers) public payable {
require(msg.value == entranceFee * newPlayers.length);
for (uint256 i = 0; i < newPlayers.length; i++) {
+ require(!isPlayer[newPlayers[i]], "Duplicate player");
+ isPlayer[newPlayers[i]] = true;
players.push(newPlayers[i]);
}
}
Updates

Lead Judging Commences

ai-first-flight-judge Lead Judge 6 days 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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