python / python/cpython

iconv codecs write an error handler's replacement in a non-initial shift state

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3.16 stdlib topic-unicode type-bug
Dominant language
Python
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Description

Bug report

An error handler's replacement bytes are copied to the output without returning it to the initial shift state first, so in a stateful encoding they are read back as encoded data.

>>> '中😀中'.encode('iso-2022-cn', 'replace')
b'\x1b$)A\x0eVP?\x1b$)A\x0eVP\x0f'
>>> _.decode('iso-2022-cn')
UnicodeDecodeError: 'iso-2022-cn' codec can't decode byte 0x3f in position 7: invalid multibyte sequence
>>> '中😀中'.encode('iso-2022-cn', 'backslashreplace').decode('iso-2022-cn')
'中苷鞍氨娑鞍中'

The built-in codec of the same family shifts back to ASCII first:

>>> '日😀日'.encode('iso2022_jp', 'replace')            # built-in
b'\x1b$BF|\x1b(B?\x1b$BF|\x1b(B'
>>> '日😀日'.encode('iconv:ISO-2022-JP', 'replace')     # iconv
b'\x1b$BF|?\x1b$BF|\x1b(B'

_PyUnicode_EncodeIconv() does reset the shift state after each handled error, but with a NULL output buffer, so the conversion forgets the state while the stream never gets the closing sequence.

This affects the ISO-2022 family and the stateful EBCDIC code pages (CP1364, CP1371, ...). ignore is unaffected, it injects nothing.

Linked PRs
  • gh-155005

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Research direction

Start at the _PyUnicode_EncodeIconv() entry point and reproduce the ISO-2022 and stateful EBCDIC examples from the report. Compare replacement-byte output and decoding with the built-in ISO-2022-JP behavior; done means handled replacements return to the initial shift state while ignore remains unaffected.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
internationalization
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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