CVE-2018-13179 in Air-Contact Token
Summary
by MITRE
The mintToken function of a smart contract implementation for Air-Contact Token (AIR), an Ethereum token, has an integer overflow that allows the owner of the contract to set the balance of an arbitrary user to any value.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/25/2020
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2018-13179 represents a critical integer overflow flaw within the mintToken function of the Air-Contact Token (AIR) smart contract deployed on the Ethereum blockchain. This vulnerability stems from inadequate input validation and arithmetic overflow handling within the contract's token minting mechanism, creating a fundamental security weakness that directly impacts the contract's integrity and user asset management capabilities. The flaw exists in the core token functionality that allows for new token creation and distribution, making it a critical component of the smart contract's operational security model.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability manifests through improper handling of integer arithmetic operations within the mintToken function, where the contract fails to validate that token minting operations will not exceed the maximum value representable by the underlying integer data types. This condition creates a scenario where an attacker with owner privileges can manipulate the balance of any user account to arbitrary values, effectively bypassing normal token transfer and balance validation mechanisms. The vulnerability specifically relates to CWE-190, which categorizes integer overflow conditions as a fundamental class of software security flaws that can lead to unexpected behavior in arithmetic operations and memory corruption scenarios.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple balance manipulation to encompass potential financial loss, contract integrity compromise, and broader ecosystem trust degradation. An attacker with owner access can inflate user balances to extremely high values, potentially enabling unauthorized token transfers, creating artificial scarcity, or manipulating token economics to their advantage. This flaw fundamentally undermines the decentralized trust model that smart contracts are designed to establish, as it allows privileged users to bypass the normal constraints that govern token distribution and ownership. The vulnerability also creates potential for cascading effects within token ecosystems where such manipulation could impact trading pairs, liquidity pools, or other interconnected smart contracts that rely on accurate balance calculations.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability require immediate implementation of comprehensive input validation and arithmetic overflow protection mechanisms within the smart contract code. The recommended approach involves implementing explicit bounds checking and using safe arithmetic libraries that prevent overflow conditions before any balance modifications occur. Additionally, contract owners should implement multi-signature authorization mechanisms for critical functions like mintToken to reduce the risk of single points of failure. The solution should also incorporate regular security audits and formal verification processes to identify similar vulnerabilities in other contract functions. Organizations should also consider implementing monitoring systems that track unusual balance changes and token minting operations to detect potential exploitation attempts. This vulnerability highlights the importance of adhering to security best practices in smart contract development and the necessity of thorough testing against known attack vectors including integer overflow scenarios, as outlined in the ATT&CK framework for smart contract security operations.