Snowman Merkle Airdrop

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

Unrestricted mintSnowman() allows anyone to bypass the airdrop and mint unlimited Snowman NFTs

Root + Impact

Description

Snowman NFTs are intended to be minted only after an eligible recipient completes the claim process through SnowmanAirdrop.claimSnowman(). The claim process verifies the recipient's EIP-712 signature and Merkle proof and transfers the required Snow tokens before minting the corresponding NFTs.

However, Snowman.mintSnowman() has no access-control restriction. Any externally owned account or contract can call the function directly and mint an arbitrary number of Snowman NFTs to any receiver.

// src/Snowman.sol
@> 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++;
}
}

An attacker therefore bypasses all intended airdrop requirements, including:

  • Merkle eligibility verification

  • Recipient signature verification

  • Snow-token staking

  • Snow-token ownership

  • Approval of the airdrop contract

The attacker can repeatedly call the function with arbitrary amounts and permanently inflate the collection's supply.

Risk

Likelihood

  • mintSnowman() is callable by every address.

  • Exploitation requires no privileged role, tokens, payment, proof, signature, or approval.

  • An attacker can exploit the vulnerability immediately after deployment.

  • The attack can be repeated without restriction.

The likelihood is therefore High.

Impact

  • Attackers can mint unlimited unauthorized Snowman NFTs.

  • The entire Merkle-airdrop and Snow-staking mechanism is bypassed.

  • Legitimate NFT holders are diluted.

  • The intended scarcity and supply integrity of the collection are destroyed.

  • Attackers can consume arbitrary token IDs and mint NFTs to themselves or any other address.

The impact is therefore High.

Proof of Concept

Create test/UnrestrictedMint.t.sol:

// SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
pragma solidity ^0.8.24;
import {Test} from "forge-std/Test.sol";
import {Snowman} from "../src/Snowman.sol";
contract UnrestrictedMintTest is Test {
Snowman internal snowman;
address internal attacker;
function setUp() public {
snowman = new Snowman("data:image/svg+xml;base64,");
attacker = makeAddr("attacker");
}
function testAnyoneCanMintUnlimitedSnowmen() public {
assertEq(snowman.balanceOf(attacker), 0);
assertEq(snowman.getTokenCounter(), 0);
// The attacker has no privileged role and has not interacted with
// SnowmanAirdrop or supplied Snow tokens, a signature, or a proof.
vm.prank(attacker);
snowman.mintSnowman(attacker, 100);
assertEq(snowman.balanceOf(attacker), 100);
assertEq(snowman.getTokenCounter(), 100);
for (uint256 tokenId = 0; tokenId < 100; tokenId++) {
assertEq(snowman.ownerOf(tokenId), attacker);
}
}
}

Run:

forge test --match-test testAnyoneCanMintUnlimitedSnowmen -vv

The test demonstrates that an arbitrary address can directly mint 100 Snowman NFTs without satisfying any airdrop requirement.

Recommended Mitigation

Restrict minting to the authorized SnowmanAirdrop contract. Because Snowman already inherits Ownable, mintSnowman() can be protected with onlyOwner.

- 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++;
}
}

After deploying the airdrop contract, transfer ownership of the NFT contract to it:

airdrop = new SnowmanAirdrop(
s_MERKLE_ROOT,
address(snow),
address(nft)
);
+ nft.transferOwnership(address(airdrop));
Updates

Lead Judging Commences

ai-first-flight-judge Lead Judge 20 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++; } } ```

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