WebAssembly / WebAssembly/binaryen

Binary encoding isn't fully validated

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#549 2 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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Dominant language
WebAssembly
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Description

During parsing of binary-encoded files, the input isn't fully validated against the specification.

For example, the specification states that "known sections may [must?] not appear out of order", however, this isn't currently being verified. Most likely, an assertion failure will occur during parsing, but this isn't guaranteed.

Likewise, the specification states that "each section is optional and may appear at most once", but since sections are parsed in a loop, the latest section of a specific type will take precedence, plus any side effects from previous occurrences of that section type.

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Research direction

No files or tests are named. Start by locating the binary-file parsing entry point and comparing section-order and duplicate-section handling with the WebAssembly binary format specification; done means malformed inputs are rejected consistently and regression coverage verifies both cases.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
wasm
Domain
compilers
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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