Headline
CVE-2021-37620: Safer std::vector indexing by kevinbackhouse · Pull Request #1769 · Exiv2/exiv2
Exiv2 is a command-line utility and C++ library for reading, writing, deleting, and modifying the metadata of image files. An out-of-bounds read was found in Exiv2 versions v0.27.4 and earlier. The out-of-bounds read is triggered when Exiv2 is used to read the metadata of a crafted image file. An attacker could potentially exploit the vulnerability to cause a denial of service, if they can trick the victim into running Exiv2 on a crafted image file. The bug is fixed in version v0.27.5.
This is the CodeQL query that I used to find the other unsafe uses of operator[]. It’s a more sophisticated version of the one that I used previously in #1735. (That one only looked for accesses of an array named value_. Without that clause, the results of that query are too noisy.)
/**
* @name Unsafe vector access
* @description std::vector::operator[] does not do any runtime
* bounds-checking, so it is safer to use std::vector::at()
* @kind problem
* @id cpp/unsafe-vector-access
* @tags security
*/
import cpp
import semmle.code.cpp.controlflow.Guards
import semmle.code.cpp.dataflow.DataFlow
import semmle.code.cpp.rangeanalysis.SimpleRangeAnalysis
import semmle.code.cpp.rangeanalysis.RangeAnalysisUtils
import semmle.code.cpp.valuenumbering.GlobalValueNumbering
import semmle.code.cpp.valuenumbering.HashCons
// A call to `operator[]`.
class ArrayIndexCall extends FunctionCall {
ClassTemplateInstantiation ti;
TemplateClass tc;
ArrayIndexCall() {
this.getTarget().getName() = "operator[]" and
ti = this.getQualifier().getType().getUnspecifiedType() and
tc = ti.getTemplate() and
tc.getSimpleName() != "map" and
tc.getSimpleName() != "match_results"
}
ClassTemplateInstantiation getClassTemplateInstantiation() { result = ti }
TemplateClass getTemplateClass() { result = tc }
}
// A call to `size` or `length`.
class SizeCall extends FunctionCall {
string fname;
SizeCall() {
fname = this.getTarget().getName() and
(fname = "size" or fname = "length")
}
}
predicate minimum_size_cond(Expr cond, Expr arrayExpr, int minsize, boolean branch) {
// `if (!x.empty()) { ...x[0]...}`
exists(FunctionCall emptyCall |
cond = emptyCall and
arrayExpr = emptyCall.getQualifier() and
emptyCall.getTarget().getName() = "empty" and
minsize = 1 and
branch = false
)
or
// `if (x.length()) { ...x[0]...}`
exists(SizeCall sizeCall |
cond = sizeCall and
arrayExpr = sizeCall.getQualifier() and
minsize = 1 and
branch = true
)
or
// `if (x.size() > 2) { ...x[2]...}`
exists(SizeCall sizeCall, Expr k, RelationStrictness strict |
arrayExpr = sizeCall.getQualifier() and
relOpWithSwapAndNegate(cond, sizeCall, k, Greater(), strict, branch)
|
strict = Strict() and minsize = 1 + k.getValue().toInt()
or
strict = Nonstrict() and minsize = k.getValue().toInt()
)
or
// `if (x.size() == 2) { ...x[1]...}`
exists(SizeCall sizeCall, Expr k |
arrayExpr = sizeCall.getQualifier() and
eqOpWithSwapAndNegate(cond, sizeCall, k, true, branch) and
minsize = k.getValue().toInt()
)
or
// `if (x.size() != 0) { ...x[0]...}`
exists(SizeCall sizeCall, Expr k |
arrayExpr = sizeCall.getQualifier() and
eqOpWithSwapAndNegate(cond, sizeCall, k, false, branch) and
k.getValue().toInt() = 0 and
minsize = 1
)
}
// Array accesses like these are safe:
// `if (!x.empty()) { ... x[0] ... }`
// `if (x.size() > 2) { ... x[2] ... }`
predicate indexK_with_check(GuardCondition guard, ArrayIndexCall call) {
exists(Expr arrayExpr, BasicBlock block, int i, int minsize, boolean branch |
minimum_size_cond(guard, arrayExpr, minsize, branch) and
(
globalValueNumber(arrayExpr) = globalValueNumber(call.getQualifier()) or
hashCons(arrayExpr) = hashCons(call.getQualifier())
) and
guard.controls(block, branch) and
block.contains(call) and
i = call.getArgument(0).getValue().toInt() and
0 <= i and
i < minsize
)
}
// Array accesses like this are safe:
// `if (i < x.size()) { ... x[i] ... }`
predicate indexI_with_check(GuardCondition guard, ArrayIndexCall call) {
exists(Expr idx, SizeCall sizeCall, BasicBlock block, boolean branch |
relOpWithSwapAndNegate(guard, idx, sizeCall, Lesser(), Strict(), branch) and
(
globalValueNumber(sizeCall.getQualifier()) = globalValueNumber(call.getQualifier()) and
globalValueNumber(idx) = globalValueNumber(call.getArgument(0))
or
hashCons(sizeCall.getQualifier()) = hashCons(call.getQualifier()) and
hashCons(idx) = hashCons(call.getArgument(0))
) and
guard.controls(block, branch) and
block.contains(call)
)
}
// Array accesses like this are safe:
// `if (!x.empty()) { ... x[x.size() - 1] ... }`
predicate index_last_with_check(GuardCondition guard, ArrayIndexCall call) {
exists(Expr arrayExpr, SubExpr minusExpr, SizeCall sizeCall, BasicBlock block, boolean branch |
minimum_size_cond(guard, arrayExpr, _, branch) and
(
globalValueNumber(arrayExpr) = globalValueNumber(call.getQualifier()) or
hashCons(arrayExpr) = hashCons(call.getQualifier())
) and
guard.controls(block, branch) and
block.contains(call) and
minusExpr = call.getArgument(0) and
minusExpr.getRightOperand().getValue().toInt() = 1 and
DataFlow::localExprFlow(sizeCall, minusExpr.getLeftOperand()) and
(
globalValueNumber(sizeCall.getQualifier()) = globalValueNumber(call.getQualifier()) or
hashCons(sizeCall.getQualifier()) = hashCons(call.getQualifier())
)
)
}
from ArrayIndexCall call, ClassTemplateInstantiation t, TemplateClass c
where
c = call.getTemplateClass() and
t = call.getClassTemplateInstantiation() and
not exists(Expr arg |
t.getSimpleName() = "array" and
arg = call.getArgument(0) and
lowerBound(arg) >= 0 and
upperBound(arg) < t.getTemplateArgument(1).(Literal).getValue().toInt()
) and
not indexK_with_check(_, call) and
not indexI_with_check(_, call) and
not index_last_with_check(_, call) and
// Ignore accesses like this: `vsnprintf(&buffer[0], buffer.size(), format, args)`
// That's pointer arithmetic, not a deref, so it's usually a false positive.
not exists(AddressOfExpr addrExpr | addrExpr.getOperand() = call) and
// Ignore results in the standard libraries and in the xmpsdk subdirectory.
exists(string path |
path = call.getLocation().getFile().getRelativePath() and
not path.matches("xmpsdk/%")
)
select call, "Unsafe use of operator[]. Use the at() method instead."
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Gentoo Linux Security Advisory 202312-6 - Multiple vulnerabilities have been discovered in Exiv2, the worst of which can lead to remote code execution. Versions greater than or equal to 0.28.1 are affected.