Snowman Merkle Airdrop

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

Snowman::mintSnowman has no access control, allowing anyone to mint unlimited NFTs for free

Description

  • Snowman NFTs are meant to be minted only through SnowmanAirdrop::claimSnowman, which gates minting behind a valid Merkle proof and a staked (transferred-in) amount of Snow tokens — 1 NFT per staked Snow token.

  • Snowman::mintSnowman is external with no modifier and no msg.sender check of any kind, so any address can call it directly and mint an arbitrary number of NFTs to any receiver, completely bypassing the staking/Merkle gate. Snowman inherits Ownable (constructor: Ownable(msg.sender)) but never uses it to protect this function, and holds no stored reference to SnowmanAirdrop at all.

// >>> EXTERNAL FUNCTIONS
function mintSnowman(address receiver, uint256 amount) external {
@> // no access control whatsoever — anyone can call this directly
for (uint256 i = 0; i < amount; i++) {
_safeMint(receiver, s_TokenCounter);
emit SnowmanMinted(receiver, s_TokenCounter);
s_TokenCounter++;
}
}

Risk

Likelihood:

  • Any unprivileged EOA can call mintSnowman at any time, with zero preconditions — no Snow balance, no Merkle proof, no signature required.

  • The deployment script (DeploySnowmanAirdrop) never wires up any restriction post-deploy, so the bug is present in the exact intended deployment configuration.

Impact:

  • Total collapse of the airdrop's scarcity model — NFT supply becomes unbounded and free to mint by anyone.

  • Destroys the value/legitimacy of every Snowman NFT, including ones minted through the legitimate claim path.

Proof of Concept

The test deploys Snowman exactly as the protocol's own DeploySnowman script does, then has a plain, unfunded attacker address (zero Snow balance, no Merkle proof, not the owner, not SnowmanAirdrop) call mintSnowman directly. No state is forged and no privileged role is impersonated — vm.prank only sets msg.sender for the one call. The test passes, showing the attacker walks away owning stolenAmount freshly minted NFTs, which is the entire intended supply-control mechanism collapsing in a single call:

function test_anyoneCanMintUnlimitedSnowmanForFree() public {
address attacker = makeAddr("attacker");
assertEq(nft.balanceOf(attacker), 0);
uint256 stolenAmount = 500;
vm.prank(attacker);
nft.mintSnowman(attacker, stolenAmount); // no proof, no stake, no ownership
assertEq(nft.balanceOf(attacker), stolenAmount);
}

Recommended Mitigation

Restrict mintSnowman to a single trusted caller — the SnowmanAirdrop contract — by storing its address at construction and gating the function with a modifier that reverts for any other msg.sender. This closes the hole without changing the minting logic itself; SnowmanAirdrop.claimSnowman is unaffected since it already is, and will remain, the only legitimate caller.

+ address private immutable i_airdrop;
+ error SM__NotAirdrop();
+
+ modifier onlyAirdrop() {
+ if (msg.sender != i_airdrop) revert SM__NotAirdrop();
+ _;
+ }
- constructor(string memory _SnowmanSvgUri) ERC721("Snowman Airdrop", "SNOWMAN") Ownable(msg.sender) {
+ constructor(string memory _SnowmanSvgUri, address _airdrop) ERC721("Snowman Airdrop", "SNOWMAN") Ownable(msg.sender) {
s_TokenCounter = 0;
s_SnowmanSvgUri = _SnowmanSvgUri;
+ i_airdrop = _airdrop;
}
- function mintSnowman(address receiver, uint256 amount) external {
+ function mintSnowman(address receiver, uint256 amount) external onlyAirdrop {
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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