python / python/cpython

A Series of Potential DoS Risk Points in the CPython Standard Library

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stdlib topic-email topic-XML type-security
Dominant language
Python
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Description

Bug report

Bug description:

Approximately six months ago, our automated scanning program detected several issues and an issue(#134873) was filed. Recently, after improving the scanner and re-running it against CPython, additional locations were found that may be susceptible to algorithmic complexity attacks. Although each finding has been validated as carefully as possible, some false positives may still exist.
Please note that these findings do not necessarily imply an exploitable vulnerability (and are unlikely to represent a straightforward remote attack vector). After discussion with PSRC, these points are being disclosed in this issue in order to leverage community review and contributions to assess impact and, where appropriate, implement hardening or fixes.
Incremental updates will be posted over the coming weeks.

We’ve updated the items related to the email module in https://github.com/python/cpython/issues/136063.

  1. _c3_mro(EXP)
    https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/e66597d6c84a8615340822b8da564e5ca3fba5cd/Lib/functools.py#L780-L823

2.allmethods(Exp)

https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/e66597d6c84a8615340822b8da564e5ca3fba5cd/Lib/pydoc.py#L211

3.FragmentBuilderNS._getNSattrs (Poly)https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/e66597d6c84a8615340822b8da564e5ca3fba5cd/Lib/xml/dom/expatbuilder.py#L818)

  1. __dict_replace(EXP)https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/e66597d6c84a8615340822b8da564e5ca3fba5cd/Lib/xml/sax/saxutils.py#L12

5.punycode_decode(Poly)
https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/e66597d6c84a8615340822b8da564e5ca3fba5cd/Lib/encodings/punycode.py#L188

.

CPython versions tested on:

CPython main branch

Operating systems tested on:

Linux

Linked PRs
  • gh-151812
  • gh-151922
  • gh-151923
  • gh-151924
  • gh-155475
  • gh-157561
  • gh-157562
  • gh-157563

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by reviewing the five locations named in Lib/functools.py, Lib/pydoc.py, Lib/xml/dom/expatbuilder.py, Lib/xml/sax/saxutils.py, and Lib/encodings/punycode.py, along with the linked pull requests. Assess each scanner finding for impact and whether hardening or a fix is appropriate. Done means every finding has a decided disposition and any necessary changes are covered by tests.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
security
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
25/100

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