Thunder Loan
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Submission Details
Severity: high
Valid

Deposits Fabricate Fee Accrual And Let Early LPs Steal From Later LPs

ra9huvansh

Root + Impact

Description

  • A deposit should mint shares against contributed underlying, and the exchange rate should only increase when the protocol actually earns fees.

  • However, `deposit()` calculates a fee from the deposit amount and immediately applies that fee to the exchange rate, even though no extra underlying was collected. This creates unbacked share appreciation.

    As a result, earlier depositors can redeem more underlying than they deposited, while later depositors absorb the loss.

function deposit(IERC20 token, uint256 amount) external revertIfZero(amount) revertIfNotAllowedToken(token) {
AssetToken assetToken = s_tokenToAssetToken[token];
uint256 exchangeRate = assetToken.getExchangeRate();
uint256 mintAmount = (amount * assetToken.EXCHANGE_RATE_PRECISION()) / exchangeRate;
assetToken.mint(msg.sender, mintAmount);
@> uint256 calculatedFee = getCalculatedFee(token, amount);
@> assetToken.updateExchangeRate(calculatedFee);
token.safeTransferFrom(msg.sender, address(assetToken), amount);
}
​
function updateExchangeRate(uint256 fee) external onlyThunderLoan {
@> uint256 newExchangeRate = s_exchangeRate * (totalSupply() + fee) / totalSupply();
s_exchangeRate = newExchangeRate;
}

Risk

Likelihood:

  • This executes on every deposit.

  • No special timing or privilege is required.Impact:

  • The exchange rate rises without backing assets.

  • Early LPs can withdraw excess value.

  • Later LPs are diluted and the pool becomes insolvent over time.

Proof of Concept

The attacker deposits first and receives shares at the initial exchange rate. When a later victim deposits,
`deposit()` incorrectly boosts the exchange rate as if a fee was earned. The attacker can then redeem their
earlier shares for more underlying than they originally deposited.
​
function test_depositInflatesExchangeRateAndLetsEarlyDepositorStealFromLaterDepositor() public {
// attacker deposits first
// victim deposits later at an inflated exchange rate
// attacker redeems and withdraws more than initial deposit
assertGt(localToken.balanceOf(attacker), attackerDeposit);
}
​

Recommended Mitigation

Deposits must not be treated as fee-generating events. The exchange rate should only be increased after actual
flash-loan fees have been paid into the asset pool.
​
function deposit(IERC20 token, uint256 amount) external revertIfZero(amount) revertIfNotAllowedToken(token) {
AssetToken assetToken = s_tokenToAssetToken[token];
uint256 exchangeRate = assetToken.getExchangeRate();
uint256 mintAmount = (amount * assetToken.EXCHANGE_RATE_PRECISION()) / exchangeRate;
emit Deposit(msg.sender, token, amount);
assetToken.mint(msg.sender, mintAmount);
- uint256 calculatedFee = getCalculatedFee(token, amount);
- assetToken.updateExchangeRate(calculatedFee);
token.safeTransferFrom(msg.sender, address(assetToken), amount);
}
​
Updates

Lead Judging Commences

ai-first-flight-judge Lead Judge about 3 hours ago
Submission Judgement Published
Validated
Assigned finding tags:

[H-02] Updating exchange rate on token deposit will inflate asset token's exchange rate faster than expected

# Summary Exchange rate for asset token is updated on deposit. This means users can deposit (which will increase exchange rate), and then immediately withdraw more underlying tokens than they deposited. # Details Per documentation: > Liquidity providers can deposit assets into ThunderLoan and be given AssetTokens in return. **These AssetTokens gain interest over time depending on how often people take out flash loans!** Asset tokens gain interest when people take out flash loans with the underlying tokens. In current version of ThunderLoan, exchange rate is also updated when user deposits underlying tokens. This does not match with documentation and will end up causing exchange rate to increase on deposit. This will allow anyone who deposits to immediately withdraw and get more tokens back than they deposited. Underlying of any asset token can be completely drained in this manner. # Filename `src/protocol/ThunderLoan.sol` # Permalinks https://github.com/Cyfrin/2023-11-Thunder-Loan/blob/8539c83865eb0d6149e4d70f37a35d9e72ac7404/src/protocol/ThunderLoan.sol#L153-L154 # Impact Users can deposit and immediately withdraw more funds. Since exchange rate is increased on deposit, they will withdraw more funds then they deposited without any flash loans being taken at all. # Recommendations It is recommended to not update exchange rate on deposits and updated it only when flash loans are taken, as per documentation. ```diff function deposit(IERC20 token, uint256 amount) external revertIfZero(amount) revertIfNotAllowedToken(token) { AssetToken assetToken = s_tokenToAssetToken[token]; uint256 exchangeRate = assetToken.getExchangeRate(); uint256 mintAmount = (amount * assetToken.EXCHANGE_RATE_PRECISION()) / exchangeRate; emit Deposit(msg.sender, token, amount); assetToken.mint(msg.sender, mintAmount); - uint256 calculatedFee = getCalculatedFee(token, amount); - assetToken.updateExchangeRate(calculatedFee); token.safeTransferFrom(msg.sender, address(assetToken), amount); } ``` # POC ```solidity function testExchangeRateUpdatedOnDeposit() public setAllowedToken { tokenA.mint(liquidityProvider, AMOUNT); tokenA.mint(user, AMOUNT); // deposit some tokenA into ThunderLoan vm.startPrank(liquidityProvider); tokenA.approve(address(thunderLoan), AMOUNT); thunderLoan.deposit(tokenA, AMOUNT); vm.stopPrank(); // another user also makes a deposit vm.startPrank(user); tokenA.approve(address(thunderLoan), AMOUNT); thunderLoan.deposit(tokenA, AMOUNT); vm.stopPrank(); AssetToken assetToken = thunderLoan.getAssetFromToken(tokenA); // after a deposit, asset token's exchange rate has aleady increased // this is only supposed to happen when users take flash loans with underlying assertGt(assetToken.getExchangeRate(), 1 * assetToken.EXCHANGE_RATE_PRECISION()); // now liquidityProvider withdraws and gets more back because exchange // rate is increased but no flash loans were taken out yet // repeatedly doing this could drain all underlying for any asset token vm.startPrank(liquidityProvider); thunderLoan.redeem(tokenA, assetToken.balanceOf(liquidityProvider)); vm.stopPrank(); assertGt(tokenA.balanceOf(liquidityProvider), AMOUNT); } ```

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