CVE-2018-13200 in DateMe
Summary
by MITRE
The sell function of a smart contract implementation for DateMe (DMX) (Contract Name: ProgressiveToken), an Ethereum token, has an integer overflow in which "amount * sellPrice" can be zero, consequently reducing a seller's assets.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/25/2020
The CVE-2018-13200 vulnerability resides within the DateMe (DMX) smart contract implementation on the Ethereum blockchain, specifically within the sell function of the ProgressiveToken contract. This represents a critical integer overflow vulnerability that fundamentally compromises the contract's financial integrity and asset management capabilities. The vulnerability manifests when the multiplication operation "amount * sellPrice" results in zero, which occurs due to improper handling of integer arithmetic within the smart contract's code execution environment.
The technical flaw stems from the absence of proper overflow checking mechanisms in the sell function implementation, allowing for arithmetic operations that exceed the maximum value representable by the integer data types used. When a seller attempts to sell tokens, the contract calculates the revenue by multiplying the token amount with the current sell price, but due to the lack of overflow protection, this calculation can produce unexpected zero values instead of the correct financial outcome. This condition directly violates the fundamental principles of secure smart contract development and constitutes a clear violation of CWE-191, which addresses integer underflow and overflow conditions.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is severe and multifaceted, as it allows malicious actors to manipulate token sales and potentially drain assets from sellers' accounts. When the multiplication results in zero due to overflow conditions, sellers receive no compensation for their tokens, effectively reducing their assets to zero while the contract's internal accounting remains inconsistent. This vulnerability creates an attack surface that aligns with ATT&CK technique T1499.004, which involves data manipulation through financial system exploitation, and represents a classic example of how integer overflow vulnerabilities can be weaponized in decentralized finance applications.
The vulnerability's exploitation potential extends beyond simple asset reduction, as it can be leveraged to create artificial market conditions where token holders are unable to redeem their assets properly. The contract's failure to validate input parameters and enforce mathematical constraints creates a persistent risk that affects all users who attempt to sell tokens through the affected contract. This type of vulnerability demonstrates the critical importance of implementing comprehensive input validation and arithmetic overflow protection in smart contract development, as outlined in industry best practices and security standards for blockchain-based applications. The vulnerability essentially undermines the fundamental trust model of the token system by allowing financial manipulation through mathematical edge cases that should have been properly handled through defensive programming techniques.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2018-13200 require immediate contract upgrades with proper overflow protection mechanisms, including the implementation of explicit bounds checking and the use of secure arithmetic libraries that prevent integer overflow conditions. The fix should incorporate comprehensive input validation to ensure that multiplication operations within the sell function cannot produce invalid zero results, while also implementing proper error handling and transaction rollback mechanisms to maintain contract consistency. Organizations should also conduct thorough security audits of all smart contract implementations to identify similar vulnerabilities that may exist in other mathematical operations, ensuring that the contract adheres to established security frameworks and best practices for blockchain-based financial systems.