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HeliumnetworkApplication · Heliumnetwork Project

CVE-2018-13502

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.0 Published 2018-07-09
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
The mintToken function of a smart contract implementation for HeliumNetwork, 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.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · high confidence

The mintToken function in the HeliumNetwork Ethereum smart contract contains an integer overflow vulnerability that allows the contract owner to manipulate user token balances to any value, effectively bypassing mathematical constraints and enabling arbitrary balance writes.

MitigationReplace unsafe arithmetic operations in mintToken with SafeMath library functions or explicit overflow checks to ensure arithmetic operations remain within bounds, and consider implementing access controls that restrict balance modifications to prevent owner abuse.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
HeliumnetworkApplication
Affected:all versions

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
High
Availability
None

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify HeliumNetwork contract deployment
    Check if your deployed Ethereum contract is the HeliumNetwork token contract by verifying the contract address matches the HeliumNetwork deployment or by examining the contract's source code metadata
    Affected if The contract is the HeliumNetwork token contract and the mintToken function exists in the deployed bytecode
  2. Locate the mintToken function in source code
    Search the smart contract source code for a function named 'mintToken' that modifies token balances
    Affected if A mintToken function exists and accepts parameters to set user token balances
  3. Check for SafeMath library usage
    Examine the mintToken function and surrounding code for SafeMath library calls (such as add, sub, mul, div) or explicit overflow checks before performing arithmetic operations on balances
    Affected if The mintToken function performs arithmetic on balances without using SafeMath or explicit overflow checks
  4. Verify balance modification logic
    Review the mintToken function to see if it directly assigns or modifies the balances mapping (e.g., balances[target] = newBalance) without mathematical safeguards
    Affected if The function directly assigns values to balances mapping without bounds checking
  5. Check for owner-only access control
    Determine if the mintToken function can only be called by the contract owner (typically via require(msg.sender == owner) or a modifier like 'onlyOwner')
    Affected if The mintToken function has an onlyOwner modifier but still allows unrestricted balance manipulation
  6. Inspect the deployed contract bytecode
    Decompile or analyze the deployed contract bytecode to confirm the vulnerability pattern exists: arithmetic operations on balances without SafeMath protection
    Affected if Bytecode analysis reveals balance modifications through unprotected arithmetic operations

You are affected if you have deployed the HeliumNetwork smart contract and the mintToken function performs direct balance assignments or arithmetic without SafeMath or overflow validation.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

From vendor data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Replace unsafe arithmetic operations in mintToken with SafeMath library functions or explicit overflow checks to ensure arithmetic operations remain within bounds, and consider implementing access controls that restrict balance modifications to prevent owner abuse.

Fix this in Heliumnetwork Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA3.0 h
16.0 hours of engineering $2,760
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2018-13502 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
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  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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