Puppy Raffle

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

Quadratic duplicate checks can DoS raffle entry

Root + Impact

Description

enterRaffle should let users enter one or more participants while rejecting duplicate addresses.

The duplicate check compares every player against every other player in the entire players array after appending the new players. This is an O(n^2) operation. As the raffle grows, entering becomes increasingly expensive and can eventually exceed the block gas limit, preventing new users from entering.

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]);
}
// @> Nested loop over all players makes entry cost grow quadratically.
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);
}

Risk

Likelihood:

  • Every raffle entry executes the nested duplicate check.

  • The gas cost increases rapidly as more players join the same raffle round.

Impact:

  • Users can be prevented from entering once the array is large enough.

  • The protocol loses availability for one of its main functions.

Proof of Concept

The following test shows the gas cost rising as the number of existing players increases:

function testEnterRaffleGasGrowsQuadratically() public {
uint256 smallStartGas;
uint256 smallGasUsed;
uint256 largeStartGas;
uint256 largeGasUsed;
for (uint160 i = 1; i <= 20; i++) {
address[] memory player = new address[](1);
player[0] = address(i);
puppyRaffle.enterRaffle{value: entranceFee}(player);
}
address[] memory smallEntry = new address[](1);
smallEntry[0] = address(10_000);
smallStartGas = gasleft();
puppyRaffle.enterRaffle{value: entranceFee}(smallEntry);
smallGasUsed = smallStartGas - gasleft();
for (uint160 i = 21; i <= 200; i++) {
address[] memory player = new address[](1);
player[0] = address(i);
puppyRaffle.enterRaffle{value: entranceFee}(player);
}
address[] memory largeEntry = new address[](1);
largeEntry[0] = address(20_000);
largeStartGas = gasleft();
puppyRaffle.enterRaffle{value: entranceFee}(largeEntry);
largeGasUsed = largeStartGas - gasleft();
assertGt(largeGasUsed, smallGasUsed);
}

With enough players, the same operation becomes too expensive for normal users or impossible within a block.

Recommended Mitigation

Track active players with a mapping and check only the new entrants instead of comparing every pair in the full array.

+ mapping(address => bool) public 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");
+ isActivePlayer[newPlayers[i]] = true;
players.push(newPlayers[i]);
}
-
- 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);
}
Updates

Lead Judging Commences

ai-first-flight-judge Lead Judge about 2 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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