CVE-2018-13505 in ecogreenhouse
Summary
by MITRE
The mintToken function of a smart contract implementation for ecogreenhouse, 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.
Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.
Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/27/2020
The vulnerability identified in CVE-2018-13505 represents a critical integer overflow flaw within the mintToken function of an Ethereum-based smart contract implementation for the ecogreenhouse token. This vulnerability stems from inadequate input validation and arithmetic overflow handling within the contract's code, creating a significant security risk for the token ecosystem. The flaw allows the contract owner to manipulate user balances arbitrarily, fundamentally compromising the integrity of the token's accounting system and potentially enabling unauthorized fund transfers or balance manipulations across the network.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability manifests through improper handling of integer arithmetic operations within the mintToken function, which falls under the CWE-190 category of integer overflow or wraparound. When the contract processes token minting operations, the underlying code fails to validate whether arithmetic operations exceed the maximum representable value for the data type being used, typically affecting uint256 or similar unsigned integer types. This overflow condition creates a scenario where mathematical operations can wrap around to zero or negative values, but more critically, allows the contract owner to exploit the flawed logic to set arbitrary user balances through crafted transaction parameters that manipulate the overflow behavior.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple balance manipulation to potentially compromise the entire token economy and user trust within the ecogreenhouse ecosystem. An attacker with owner privileges could artificially inflate or deflate user balances, create unlimited tokens, or manipulate the total supply calculations that underpin the token's value and distribution mechanisms. This vulnerability directly violates fundamental security principles of blockchain systems, as it undermines the immutability and predictability of token accounting. The impact is particularly severe because it allows for unauthorized wealth redistribution and could enable sophisticated attacks such as balance manipulation for gaming token rewards, creating economic instability within the platform.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability require immediate code remediation through proper input validation, overflow checking, and the implementation of safe arithmetic operations using libraries such as OpenZeppelin's SafeMath or similar mathematical libraries that prevent integer overflows. The contract owner must implement comprehensive parameter validation to ensure that mint operations do not exceed safe limits and that all balance updates are properly constrained. Additionally, the system should incorporate proper access controls and audit logging to detect unauthorized balance manipulations. This vulnerability aligns with ATT&CK technique T1059.001 for executing malicious code through smart contract manipulation and T1496 for data manipulation in the context of cryptocurrency systems, emphasizing the need for robust contract security reviews and continuous monitoring of token operations to prevent exploitation of similar arithmetic overflow conditions in other smart contract implementations.