Puppy Raffle

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

Unbounded Duplicate-Check Loop in enterRaffle() Enables Gas-Griefing DoS.

Root + Impact

Description

The duplicate check in enterRaffle function(`https://github.com/CodeHawks-Contests/ai-puppy-raffle/blob/08e5b1fc6939b8da7792b2d13e43000c519d8897/src/PuppyRaffle.sol#L79`) uses a nested loop over the entire players array (O(n²) complexity):
https://github.com/CodeHawks-Contests/ai-puppy-raffle/blob/08e5b1fc6939b8da7792b2d13e43000c519d8897/src/PuppyRaffle.sol#L86
https://github.com/CodeHawks-Contests/ai-puppy-raffle/blob/08e5b1fc6939b8da7792b2d13e43000c519d8897/src/PuppyRaffle.sol#L87
https://github.com/CodeHawks-Contests/ai-puppy-raffle/blob/08e5b1fc6939b8da7792b2d13e43000c519d8897/src/PuppyRaffle.sol#L88
Every new call re-scans the entire historical players array, not just the newly added entries. As players.length grows, the gas cost of each subsequent enterRaffle() call increases quadratically. An attacker (or even honest heavy use) can cheaply pad the array early in a round, making entry prohibitively expensive — or outright impossible once it exceeds the block gas limit — for all later entrants.
https://github.com/CodeHawks-Contests/ai-puppy-raffle/blob/08e5b1fc6939b8da7792b2d13e43000c519d8897/src/PuppyRaffle.sol#L86
https://github.com/CodeHawks-Contests/ai-puppy-raffle/blob/08e5b1fc6939b8da7792b2d13e43000c519d8897/src/PuppyRaffle.sol#L87
https://github.com/CodeHawks-Contests/ai-puppy-raffle/blob/08e5b1fc6939b8da7792b2d13e43000c519d8897/src/PuppyRaffle.sol#L88

Risk

Likelihood:

ITs classified as medium likelyhood.

Impact:

Legitimate users are priced out of, or completely blocked from, entering the raffle later in a round. This can be weaponized by an attacker to monopolize a raffle by making it economically or technically infeasible for competitors to join after they've padded the array.

Proof of Concept

The following demostrates how gas useage astronomically increases when scanning an already populated array twice.

contract PuppyRaffleDoSTest is Test {
PuppyRaffle puppyRaffle;
uint256 entranceFee = 1 ether;
address feeAddress = address(99);
uint256 duration = 1 days;
function setUp() public {
puppyRaffle = new PuppyRaffle(entranceFee, feeAddress, duration);
}
function testGasCostGrowsQuadratically() public {
uint256 firstBatch = 100;
address[] memory firstPlayers = new address[](firstBatch);
for (uint256 i = 0; i < firstBatch; i++) {
firstPlayers[i] = address(uint160(i + 1));
}
uint256 gasStart1 = gasleft();
puppyRaffle.enterRaffle{value: entranceFee * firstBatch}(firstPlayers);
uint256 gasUsedFirst = gasStart1 - gasleft();
uint256 secondBatch = 100;
address[] memory secondPlayers = new address[](secondBatch);
for (uint256 i = 0; i < secondBatch; i++) {
secondPlayers[i] = address(uint160(firstBatch + i + 1));
}
uint256 gasStart2 = gasleft();
puppyRaffle.enterRaffle{value: entranceFee * secondBatch}(secondPlayers);
uint256 gasUsedSecond = gasStart2 - gasleft();
// Same batch size, but gas cost for the second batch (scanning against
// an already-populated array) is significantly higher than the first
assertGt(gasUsedSecond, gasUsedFirst);
}
}

Recommended Mitigation

Track seen addresses with a mapping(address => bool) for O(1) duplicate detection instead of a nested loop:
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]);
}
// 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");
}
}
emit RaffleEnter(newPlayers);
}
- remove this code
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]);
}
emit RaffleEnter(newPlayers);
} + add this code
Updates

Lead Judging Commences

ai-first-flight-judge Lead Judge about 9 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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