CVE-2018-13556
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 COSMOTokenERC20, 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 mintToken function in the COSMOTokenERC20 smart contract contains an integer overflow vulnerability that allows the contract owner to set any user's token balance to an arbitrary value. This enables unlimited token creation and manipulation of balances outside normal minting constraints.
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 your contract is Cosmotokenerc20Retrieve the contract bytecode or source code from the blockchain explorer or local deployment, and search for identifiers such as 'Cosmotokenerc20', 'CosmToken', or the specific contract name in the metadata. Compare against the known vulnerable contract structure.Affected if Your deployed contract matches the Cosmotokenerc20 token contract with the vulnerable mintToken function.
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Locate the mintToken function in the contractSearch the contract source code or decompiled bytecode for a function named 'mintToken' or its function signature. This function should accept an address and a uint256 value as parameters.Affected if A mintToken function exists that accepts an address and allows setting a token balance.
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Verify absence of SafeMath protectionExamine the contract code for 'using SafeMath' statements or library imports, and check whether arithmetic operations in the mintToken function use SafeMath methods (such as add, sub, mul) instead of raw operators (+, -, *).Affected if The contract does not use SafeMath library for arithmetic operations in the mintToken function.
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Confirm owner-only access to balance manipulationReview the mintToken function modifier - it should be callable only by the contract owner (typically requires 'onlyOwner' or similar access control). Verify the function directly assigns a balance without validation (e.g., balances[account] = amount).Affected if The mintToken function is accessible only to the owner and directly assigns balances without overflow checks.
Your environment is affected if you have deployed the Cosmotokenerc20 contract and its mintToken function lacks SafeMath overflow protection, allowing the owner to arbitrarily set token balances.
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 dataDeploy a fixed version of the contract using SafeMath libraries for arithmetic operations and migrate affected balances; also consider contract upgrade mechanisms for future vulnerabilities.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA4.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $6,176.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-13556 — 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-2018-13556 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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