CS.SV.TAINTED.GLOBAL
Use of Unvalidated Integer in an Assignment Operation
This checker reports a defect whenever tainted data is used to assign a globally visible data field.
Vulnerability and risk
Global variables, such as C# public static class fields, are visible in the entire program scope. It can be difficult for a programmer or an analysis tool to fully control their assignments or reads in the program. The possibility of a reduced understanding of the global variable effect on the program control flow can introduce a security risk when integer data input to the code is not validated properly and is used to assign a global variable.
Vulnerable code example 1
using System;
using System.IO;
namespace TaintedGlobal
{
class TestTaintedGlobal
{
const string fileName = "File.dat";
public static int gVar = 0;
public static void TaintedGlobalExample()
{
int t = getTaintedData();
gVar = t; // CS.SV.TAINTED.GLOBAL
}
public static int getTaintedData()
{
try
{
using (BinaryReader br = new BinaryReader(File.Open(fileName, FileMode.Open)))
{
return(br.ReadInt32());
}
}
catch (Exception e)
{
Console.WriteLine(e);
}
}
}
}In the above example, an attacker can provide the large value for global variable ‘gVar’. If the assignment operation at line 13 overflows, this can result in a negative value of variable ‘gVar’, and cause unexpected program behaviour.
Klocwork reports a CS.SV.TAINTED.GLOBAL defect at line 13, indicating: “Unvalidated integer value ’t’ that is received from ’getTaintedData’ at line 12 is used to initialize a field at line 13.”
Fixed code example 1
using System;
using System.IO;
namespace TaintedGlobal
{
class TestTaintedGlobal
{
const string fileName = "File.dat";
const int maxBuf = 10;
public static int gVar = 0;
public static void TaintedGlobalExample()
{
int t = getTaintedData();
if(t < maxBuf)
{
gVar = t;
}
}
public static int getTaintedData()
{
try
{
using (BinaryReader br = new BinaryReader(File.Open(fileName, FileMode.Open)))
{
return(br.ReadInt32());
}
}
catch (Exception e)
{
Console.WriteLine(e);
}
}
}
}Klocwork no longer reports a defect, since the integer value 't' is validated at line 14 before being used to initialize the global variable at line 16.
Vulnerable code example 2
using System;
using System.IO;
namespace TaintedGlobal
{
class TestTaintedGlobal
{
const string fileName = "File.dat";
public static void TaintedGlobalExample()
{
int t = getTaintedData();
TaintedTrueGlobal.gVar1 = t; // CS.SV.TAINTED.GLOBAL
}
public static int getTaintedData()
{
try
{
using (BinaryReader br = new BinaryReader(File.Open(fileName, FileMode.Open)))
{
return(br.ReadInt32());
}
}
catch (Exception e)
{
Console.WriteLine(e);
}
}
}
static class TaintedTrueGlobal
{
public static int gVar1= 0;
}
}In the above example, an attacker can provide the large value for global variable ‘gVar1’. If the assignment operation at line 12 overflows, this can result in a negative value of variable ‘gVar1’, and cause unexpected program behavior.
Klocwork reports a CS.SV.TAINTED.GLOBAL defect at line 12, indicating: “Unvalidated integer value’t’ that is received from ’getTaintedData’ at line 11 is used to initialise a field at line 12.”
Fixed code example 2
using System;
using System.IO;
namespace TaintedGlobal
{
class TestTaintedGlobal
{
const string fileName = "File.dat";
const int maxBuf = 10;
public static void TaintedGlobalExample()
{
int t = getTaintedData();
if(t < maxBuf)
{
TaintedTrueGlobal.gVar1 = t;
}
}
public static int getTaintedData()
{
try
{
using (BinaryReader br = new BinaryReader(File.Open(fileName, FileMode.Open)))
{
return(br.ReadInt32());
}
}
catch (Exception e)
{
Console.WriteLine(e);
}
}
}
static class TaintedTrueGlobal
{
public static int gVar1= 0;
}
}Klocwork no longer reports a defect, since the integer value 'temp' is validated at line 16 before being used to initialize the global variable.