CVE-2018-13523
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 · uneditedThe mintToken function of a smart contract implementation for SmartPayment, 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 confidenceThe SmartPayment Ethereum token contract's mintToken function contains an integer overflow vulnerability that allows the contract owner to manipulate any user's token balance to arbitrary values. This is a critical access control and data integrity flaw combined with arithmetic overflow.
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 dataall versionsCVSS 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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify if you have interacted with the SmartPayment token contractReview your Ethereum wallet transaction history or token holdings for the SmartPayment token contract address. If you hold or have transacted with this specific token, you may be affected.Affected if You hold SmartPayment tokens or have a transaction history with the SmartPayment token contract.
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Locate and inspect the deployed contract source codeSearch for the SmartPayment token contract on Etherscan or similar block explorers using the contract address. Obtain the Solidity source code and locate the mintToken function.Affected if The contract source code contains a mintToken function with arithmetic operations on token balances without SafeMath.
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Verify SafeMath library usageSearch the contract source code for 'using SafeMath' statements or library imports. Check whether arithmetic operations (+, -, *, /) in mintToken use SafeMath methods (.add, .sub, .mul, .div).Affected if The contract does not import or use SafeMath library for arithmetic operations in mintToken.
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Check Solidity compiler versionLocate the 'pragma solidity' directive in the contract source code. Identify the compiler version number specified.Affected if The contract uses Solidity version below 0.8.x (which has built-in overflow checks).
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Inspect mintToken function access controlsReview the mintToken function declaration for visibility modifiers (public, external, internal, private) and any require statements or access control modifiers. Check if the function has any restrictions on who can call it.Affected if The mintToken function is declared as public or external without proper access control restrictions, allowing the contract owner to manipulate any user's balance.
You are affected if you hold or have transacted with the SmartPayment token contract, especially if the deployed contract lacks SafeMath usage or uses Solidity below 0.8 and has an unprotected mintToken function that allows arbitrary balance modifications.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
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 dataThe contract must be upgraded to use SafeMath libraries or Solidity 0.8+ with built-in overflow checks, and proper access controls should be implemented to restrict balance modifications. Token holders should be notified of the vulnerability and potential need for token migration.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation6.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-13523 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2018-13523 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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