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Vulnerabilities

  • Introduction
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    Apex

    • Overview
    • Insecure Access Control
    • Insecure Network Communication
    • Insecure Processing of Data
    • Insecure Use of Cryptography
    • Insecure Use of Language/Framework API
    • Insecure Use of SQL Queries

    C/C++

    • Overview
    • Insecure Access Control
    • Insecure File Management
    • Insecure Processing of Data
    • Insecure Use of Cryptography
    • Insecure Use of Dangerous Function

    Dotnet

    • Overview
    • Insecure Access Control
    • Insecure Configuration
    • Insecure File Management
    • Insecure Processing of Data
    • Insecure Use of Cryptography
    • Insecure Use of Dangerous Function
    • Insecure Use of SQL Queries
    • Using Vulnerable Libraries

    Elixir

    • Overview
    • Insecure Configuration
    • Insecure File Management
    • Insecure Processing of Data
    • Insecure Network Communication
    • Insecure Use of Dangerous Function
    • Insecure Use of Language/Framework API
    • Insecure Use of SQL Queries
    • Using Vulnerable Libraries

    Go

    • Overview
    • Insecure File Management
    • Insecure Network Communication
    • Insecure Processing of Data
    • Insecure Use of Cryptography
    • Insecure Use of Dangerous Function
    • Insecure Use of SQL Queries
    • Using Vulnerable Libraries

    Java

    • Overview
    • Using Vulnerable Libraries
    • Insecure Use of SQL Queries
    • Insecure Use of Dangerous Function
    • Insecure Use of Regular Expressions
    • Insecure Authentication
    • Insecure Configuration
    • Insecure File Management
    • Insecure Use of Cryptography
    • Insecure Use of Language/Framework API
    • Insecure Processing of Data
    • Insecure Network Communication

    Javascript/TypeScript

    • Overview
    • Insecure Authentication
    • Insecure Processing of Data
    • Insecure Use of SQL Queries
    • Insecure Use of Regular Expressions
    • Insecure Use of Language/Framework API
    • Insecure Use of Dangerous Function
    • Using Vulnerable Libraries

    Kubernetes

    • Overview
    • Insecure Access Control
    • Insecure Configuration
    • Insecure Network Communication

    PHP

    • Overview
    • Insecure Configuration
    • Insecure File Management
    • Insecure Network Communication
    • Insecure Processing of Data
    • Insecure Use of Dangerous Function
    • Insecure Use of Language/Framework API
    • Insecure Use of Regular Expressions
    • Insecure Use of SQL Queries
    • Using Vulnerable Libraries

    Python

    • Overview
    • Insecure Configuration
    • Insecure Use of Cryptography
    • Insecure Network Communication
    • Insecure Processing of Data
    • Insecure Use of Dangerous Function
    • Insecure Use of SQL Queries
    • Using Vulnerable Libraries

    Ruby

    • Overview
    • Insecure Access Control
    • Insecure Configuration
    • Insecure File Management
    • Insecure Network Communication
    • Insecure Processing of Data
    • Insecure Use of Dangerous Function
    • Insecure Use of Language/Framework API
    • Insecure Use of Regular Expressions
    • Insecure Use of SQL Queries
    • Using Vulnerable Libraries

    Rust

    • Overview
    • Using Vulnerable Libraries

    Solidity

    • Overview
    • Insecure Integer Arithmetic
    • Insecure Use of Low-Level Call
    • Reliance on Insecure Random Numbers
    • State Change After External Call
    • Transaction Order Dependence
    • Unprotected Critical Function
    • Use of Insecure Function
    • Dependence on Predictable Environment Variables
    • Write to Arbitrary Storage Location
    • Call to Untrusted Contract

    Terraform

    • Overview
    • Hard-Coded Secrets
    • Insecure Access Control
    • Insecure Configuration
    • Insecure Network Communication
    • Insecure Use of Cryptography

Insecure Use of Regular Expressions

Why is this important?

Regular Expressions (Regex) are used in almost every application. Less known is the fact that a Regex can lead to Denial of Service (DOS) attacks, called ReDOS. This is due to the fact that regex engines may take a large amount of time when analyzing certain strings, depending on how the regex is defined.

For example, given: ^(a+)+$, the input "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaX" makes the regex engine analyze 65536 different paths.

Therefore, it is possible that a single request may cause a large amount of computation on the server side. The problem with this regex, and others like it, is that there are two different ways the same input character can be accepted by the Regex due to the + (or a *) inside the parenthesis, and the + (or a *) outside the parenthesis. The way this is written, either + could consume the character 'a'. To fix this, the regex should be rewritten to eliminate the ambiguity. For example, this could simply be rewritten as: ^a+$, which is presumably what the author meant anyway (any number of a's). Assuming that's what the original regex meant, this new regex can be evaluated quickly, and is not subject to ReDOS.

Read below to find out how to fix this issue in your code.

Fixing Insecure Use of Regular Expressions

Option A: Create safe Regular Expressions

  1. Go through the issues that GuardRails identified in the PR.
  2. Identify any * or + operators that are close to each other, without serving different purposes.
  3. Rewrite the Regex to eliminate the ambiguities. Libraries like Safe-Regex can help with testing that a Regex is safe.
  4. Test it and ensure the regex is still working as expected.
  5. Ship it 🚢 and relax 🌴

More information

  • OWASP Validation Regex Repository
  • Regex Library
  • Sebastian Kubeck's Weblog: Detecting and Preventing ReDoS Vulnerabilities
  • OWASP: Regular expression Denial of Service
  • CWE-400: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption ('Resource Exhaustion')
← Insecure Use of Dangerous FunctionInsecure Authentication →
  • Why is this important?
  • Fixing Insecure Use of Regular Expressions
    • Option A: Create safe Regular Expressions
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