CVE-2018-11429 in ATLANT
Summary
by MITRE
ATLANT (ATL) is a smart contract running on Ethereum. The mint function has an integer overflow that allows minted tokens to be arbitrarily retrieved by the contract owner.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/25/2020
The vulnerability described in CVE-2018-11429 affects ATLANT (ATL), a smart contract deployed on the Ethereum blockchain platform. This smart contract implements a token minting mechanism that suffers from a critical integer overflow flaw in its mint function. The flaw represents a fundamental security weakness that directly impacts the contract's integrity and the security of its token economy. The vulnerability exists within the contract's logic where input validation and overflow protection mechanisms are insufficiently implemented, allowing malicious actors to exploit the mathematical properties of integer arithmetic.
The technical flaw manifests as an integer overflow condition within the mint function that enables an attacker to manipulate the token supply calculation. When the mint function processes token creation requests, it fails to properly validate or constrain the input parameters that determine how many tokens are minted. This allows an attacker to submit carefully crafted values that cause the integer arithmetic to wrap around, resulting in unexpected token quantities. The overflow condition specifically affects the token balance calculations, enabling the contract owner to retrieve an arbitrary number of tokens that exceed the intended minting limits. This vulnerability operates at the core level of the smart contract's mathematical operations and directly violates the expected behavior of token minting mechanisms.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is severe and multifaceted, affecting both the economic stability of the token and the trust in the underlying smart contract system. The contract owner can exploit this flaw to mint an unlimited number of tokens, effectively creating an inflationary attack that devalues the existing token holdings of legitimate users. This represents a critical compromise of the token's scarcity model and economic incentives that are fundamental to blockchain-based systems. The vulnerability also creates a potential for financial loss for token holders and undermines the security assumptions that users rely upon when interacting with smart contracts on the Ethereum network.
From a cybersecurity perspective, this vulnerability aligns with CWE-190, which describes integer overflow and underflow conditions, and demonstrates the critical importance of input validation in smart contract development. The flaw also relates to ATT&CK technique T1210, which involves exploitation of remote services through the manipulation of input parameters to achieve unauthorized access or control. Mitigation strategies should include implementing proper integer overflow checks using safe arithmetic libraries, conducting thorough code audits for mathematical operations, and utilizing formal verification methods to ensure the correctness of smart contract logic. The contract should also implement proper access controls and validation mechanisms to prevent unauthorized manipulation of token minting functions, ensuring that all arithmetic operations maintain expected bounds and that the contract owner cannot exploit such vulnerabilities to gain disproportionate token holdings.