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

Root + Impact

Description

Snowman NFTs are meant to be issued exclusively through SnowmanAirdrop::claimSnowman, in exchange for staking Snow tokens proven by a Merkle proof and an EIP-712 signature. However, Snowman::mintSnowman is external with no authorization check at all, so any address can mint any number of NFTs to any recipient for free, bypassing the entire airdrop economy.

// File: src/Snowman.sol — Lines 36–44
function mintSnowman(address receiver, uint256 amount) external {
@> // no onlyOwner / onlyMinter / any authorization check
for (uint256 i = 0; i < amount; i++) {
_safeMint(receiver, s_TokenCounter);
emit SnowmanMinted(receiver, s_TokenCounter);
s_TokenCounter++;
}
}

The contract inherits Ownable (Ownable(msg.sender) in the constructor) but onlyOwner is never used anywhere in the contract. There is no minter role, no allowlist, and no reference to the airdrop contract. The deployment tooling never grants the airdrop any minting privilege either — the permissionless mint is precisely what makes claimSnowman functional today, which shows the access-control layer was never implemented rather than intentionally opened. An attacker needs nothing but gas: one call mints an arbitrary amount, and the call can be repeated without limit. Because tokenIds come from a shared sequential counter, illegitimate mints also interleave with legitimate airdrop mints, permanently polluting the collection's provenance — there is no way to distinguish or prune attacker-minted tokens afterwards.

Risk

Likelihood:

  • Callable by any EOA or contract at any time — no tokens, proof, signature, or role required.

  • Costs only gas; repeatable without bound in a single block.

Impact:

  • Unlimited minting of the protocol's core NFT asset: the Snow-staking requirement, the Merkle whitelist, and the per-address claim limit are all voided.

  • Total decoupling of NFT supply from the airdrop allocation — collection scarcity and the staking incentive are destroyed (the framework severity model classifies "unlimited mint" as its top impact tier).

Proof of Concept

function test_PoC_PermissionlessMint() public {
address stranger = makeAddr("stranger");
assertEq(nft.balanceOf(stranger), 0);
vm.prank(stranger); // arbitrary EOA — not owner, not the airdrop
nft.mintSnowman(stranger, 100);
assertEq(nft.balanceOf(stranger), 100); // 100 NFTs minted out of thin air
console2.log("stranger minted NFTs:", nft.balanceOf(stranger));
}

Run: add the test to test/TestSnowmanAirdrop.t.sol (its setup deploys nft via Helper), then forge test --match-test test_PoC_PermissionlessMint -vv

Output (actual run):

[PASS] test_PoC_PermissionlessMint() (gas: 3383694)
Logs:
FC-0001: stranger minted NFTs: 100

Recommended Mitigation

Restrict minting to the airdrop contract (or an explicit minter role held by it).

contract Snowman is ERC721, Ownable {
+ address public immutable airdrop;
+
+ constructor(string memory _SnowmanSvgUri, address _airdrop)
+ ERC721("Snowman Airdrop", "SNOWMAN") Ownable(msg.sender)
+ {
+ airdrop = _airdrop;
+ // ...
+ }
function mintSnowman(address receiver, uint256 amount) external {
+ if (msg.sender != airdrop) revert SM__NotAllowed();
for (uint256 i = 0; i < amount; i++) {
_safeMint(receiver, s_TokenCounter);

(Alternatively: add onlyOwner to mintSnowman and transfer Snowman ownership to the deployed SnowmanAirdrop.)

Updates

Lead Judging Commences

ai-first-flight-judge Lead Judge about 19 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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