Puppy Raffle

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

O(n^2) duplicate check in enterRaffle causes denial of service as the player array grows

Root + Impact

Description

`enterRaffle` is meant to let players join the raffle and rejects duplicate addresses to keep entries unique. The problem is that the duplicate check uses a nested double loop over the entire `players` array, making it O(n^2). Each new entry re-scans all existing players, so gas cost grows quadratically with the number of participants. Past a certain size, entering costs more gas than a block allows, permanently blocking new entries — a denial of service. It also makes earlier entrants pay far less gas than later ones for the same action.

// Check for duplicates
for (uint256 i = 0; i < players.length - 1; i++) {
for (uint256 j = i + 1; j < players.length; j++) { // @> nested loop = O(n^2)
require(players[i] != players[j], "PuppyRaffle: Duplicate player");
}
}

Risk

Likelihood:

  • Occurs as the raffle fills up: gas per entry grows with the square of the number of existing players.

  • At ~200 players a single entry already consumes ~19M gas, approaching the ~30M block gas limit; slightly more players make entry impossible.

Impact:

  • New players are eventually unable to enter (transaction exceeds block gas limit) — denial of service on the core entry function.

  • Unfair gas costs: early entrants pay far less than later ones for the same operation.

Proof of Concept

A Foundry test compares gas for a single entry when the array is empty vs. when it already holds 501 players. The late entrant pays more than 10x the gas for the identical action, and total gas for filling scales quadratically.

function test_PoC_DoS_Duplicates() public {
uint256 gasFirst = _enterN(1, 1); // player #1, empty array
_enterN(2, 500); // fill with 500
uint256 gasLate = _enterN(600, 1); // player #502, array has 501
assertGt(gasLate, gasFirst * 10); // late entry costs 10x+ more gas
}
// Confirmed: gas per entry scales with array size -> DoS as it fills.

Recommended Mitigation

Use a mapping(address => bool) to detect duplicates in O(1) instead of the O(n^2) nested loop. Reset it per raffle round when the players array is cleared.

- // 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");
- }
- }
+ // Track entrants in a mapping for O(1) duplicate detection
+ for (uint256 i = 0; i < newPlayers.length; i++) {
+ require(!hasEntered[newPlayers[i]], "PuppyRaffle: Duplicate player");
+ hasEntered[newPlayers[i]] = true;
+ }
Updates

Lead Judging Commences

ai-first-flight-judge Lead Judge about 3 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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