Snowman Merkle Airdrop

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

mintSnowman has no access control — anyone can mint unlimited NFTs

Title: mintSnowman has no access control — anyone can mint unlimited NFTs
Impact: High. Anyone can mint arbitrary amounts of Snowman NFTs to any address.
Likelihood: High. No modifier, no permission check — callable by any EOA or contract.
Reference Files: repos/src/Snowman.sol:36-44

Description

The mintSnowman() function is declared external with no access control modifier. There is no onlyOwner, no onlyAirdrop, and no permission check. The function calls _safeMint() in a loop for the requested amount. Anyone can mint unlimited Snowman NFTs to any address, bypassing the staking and airdrop mechanisms that are supposed to control NFT distribution.

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++;
}
}

The SnowmanAirdrop contract calls this function during claimSnowman() to distribute NFTs to stakers, but the lack of access control means anyone can mint directly, making the staking, Merkle proof, and ECDSA signature infrastructure irrelevant.

Risk

Impact: High. An attacker can mint unlimited Snowman NFTs to themselves, diluting the collection to zero value. The token counter can be inflated arbitrarily. The staking mechanism becomes meaningless since anyone can get NFTs without staking Snow tokens.
Likelihood: High. The function requires no permissions, no tokens, no signatures — just a single external call.
With repeated calls of 100 NFTs each, an attacker can mint thousands of NFTs per block.

Proof of Concept

function testAnyoneCanMintSnowman() public {
address attacker = makeAddr("attacker");
vm.prank(attacker);
snowman.mintSnowman(attacker, 100);
assertEq(snowman.balanceOf(attacker), 100);
assertEq(snowman.ownerOf(0), attacker);
}

The PoC proves any address can mint Snowman NFTs without staking or authorization.

Recommended Mitigation

modifier onlyAirdrop() {
require(msg.sender == address(airdrop), "Not airdrop");
_;
}
function mintSnowman(address receiver, uint256 amount) external onlyAirdrop { ... }

Restrict mintSnowman to only the SnowmanAirdrop contract via an access control modifier.

Updates

Lead Judging Commences

ai-first-flight-judge Lead Judge about 23 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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