User can lose all funds when creating or increasing compounded Maker position due to share inflation
| Title | User can lose all funds when creating or increasing compounded Maker position due to share inflation |
|---|---|
| Reward | $1196, 3 dups |
| Contest | Ammplify - 2 Sep 2025 on Sherlock |
| Author | panprog |
| Context | Inflation Attack |
Each segment in Ammplify functions as a vault for compounded makers. That makes the classic first-deposit share inflation attack possible for any range that has no liquidity yet:
- User wants to deposit liquidity into some range;
- There is no Ammplify Maker liquidity in some segment of the range (or all range);
- Attacker front-runs the deposit with the minimum deposit, then donates to the Uniswap liquidity range to inflate the share price;
- The deposit proceeds, taking the necessary token0 and token1 from the user but minting them 0 liquidity shares, because the liquidity owed is below 1 and rounds down. The Uniswap liquidity is still minted, but it now belongs to the vault, and so to the attacker.
The attacker takes the whole deposit, and the user receives 0 shares for their assets.
There is some protection in the form of a minimum target liquidity, but it is ineffective and can be bypassed: it constrains liquidity itself, not liquidity shares. After depositing the minimum liquidity and donating to the pool range, the share price rises by orders of magnitude.
Alpha: check for the first-deposit attack everywhere, and remember that a mitigation being present does not mean it works.
Conclusion
This finding would earn you $1196. It is the standard inflation attack with one extra check to bypass, so do not just find it — write up every technicality.