Smart Contract Funds Lost Due to Missing Address Validation: $80M in Danger!

💥 Smart Contract Funds Lost Due to Missing Address Validation: $80M in Danger! 💥

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Hey everyone! 👋

I’ve got an exciting yet concerning finding to share with you today. While auditing a Web3 smart contract, I discovered a critical vulnerability that could result in irreversible funds loss. Trust me, this is one massive issue you won’t want to miss. So grab your coffee, and let’s dive into why address validation is a must!

Picture this: You’re interacting with a smart contract, trusting it with your funds, and everything seems perfect. But here’s the dangerous flaw lurking in the background. The contract does not verify the validity of key addresses, like the beneficiary address and the token address. 😱

Without an address check, an attacker or even a user can input the dreaded 0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000000 address (also known as the burn address). Once the address is set, funds will be transferred to that address, and they are lost forever.

In Solidity, if you don’t explicitly set a value for an address variable (such as a beneficiary address), it will default to 0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000000, a null or “zero” address. This happens because Solidity initializes unassigned address variables to zero by default.