Puppy Raffle

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

Unbounded O(n^2) duplicate check in `PuppyRaffle::enterRaffle` causes a denial of service and ever-rising entry gas cost

Description

enterRaffle checks for duplicate players with a nested loop over the entire players
array (O(n^2)). The gas cost of entering grows quadratically with the number of existing
players. As the raffle fills, entering eventually exceeds the block gas limit, so no one
can enter anymore (denial of service). It also lets an attacker grief the raffle by
front-loading many addresses to price out honest participants, and makes entry costs
unfair (early entrants pay little, later ones pay a lot).

Root Cause

function enterRaffle(address[] memory newPlayers) public payable {
require(msg.value == entranceFee * newPlayers.length, "...");
for (uint256 i = 0; i < newPlayers.length; i++) {
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");
@> }
@> }
}

The duplicate check is O(players.length^2) and players is unbounded.

Risk

Likelihood: High — happens naturally as the raffle grows popular, and can be forced
on purpose by an attacker who enters many addresses.

Impact: Medium — the protocol becomes unusable (no further entries once gas exceeds
the block limit), entry costs are unfair, and the raffle can be griefed. No direct theft,
but it breaks the core functionality / availability.

Proof of Concept

Entering a second batch of 100 players costs far more gas than the first batch, showing
the quadratic growth:

function test_denialOfServiceByGas() public {
uint256 n = 100;
address[] memory batchA = new address[](n);
for (uint256 i = 0; i < n; i++) batchA[i] = address(uint160(i + 1));
uint256 gasStartA = gasleft();
puppyRaffle.enterRaffle{value: entranceFee * n}(batchA);
uint256 gasUsedA = gasStartA - gasleft();
​
address[] memory batchB = new address[](n);
for (uint256 i = 0; i < n; i++) batchB[i] = address(uint160(i + 1 + n));
uint256 gasStartB = gasleft();
puppyRaffle.enterRaffle{value: entranceFee * n}(batchB);
uint256 gasUsedB = gasStartB - gasleft();
​
assertGt(gasUsedB, gasUsedA); // second batch is much more expensive
}

Recommended Mitigation

Remove the on-chain O(n^2) duplicate check. Options:

  • Track participation with a mapping(address => bool) (O(1) lookups) instead of scanning
    the array, or

  • Allow duplicates (a user entering twice simply buys two tickets) and drop the check, or

  • Use a mapping(address => uint256) of address to raffle round to enforce uniqueness per
    round in O(1).

- for (uint256 i = 0; i bool) hasEntered; checked/updated in O(1) in the push loop
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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