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attack-surface.md

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Attack Surface Analysis for phaserjs/phaser

Attack Surface: Untrusted Input to Game Logic (via Phaser Input APIs)

  • Description: User-provided input, captured through Phaser's input APIs (this.input.keyboard, this.input.mousePointer, this.input.gamepad, etc.), is directly used to modify game state without proper validation and sanitization. This is the most direct and common way Phaser contributes to input-related vulnerabilities.
  • How Phaser Contributes: Phaser provides the mechanism to receive input, but it's entirely the developer's responsibility to validate and sanitize the data received. Phaser's APIs return raw input values.
  • Example: A game uses this.input.keyboard.on('keydown', ...) to get key presses. If the code directly uses the event.key value to set a player's position or velocity without checking if it's a valid/safe value, an attacker could inject unexpected characters or strings, potentially causing errors, crashes, or unexpected behavior. Another example: a game that allows direct numeric input to set a character attribute (e.g., speed) without clamping the value.
  • Impact: Game crashes, unexpected behavior, unfair advantages, potential code execution (less likely, but possible if input is used in an unsafe way, like constructing dynamic strings for eval() or similar – which should never be done).
  • Risk Severity: High (Potentially Critical if it leads to code execution or severe game disruption).
  • Mitigation Strategies:
    • Developer:
      • Strict Input Validation: Validate all data received from Phaser's input APIs. Check data types, ranges, and allowed values (whitelist approach).
      • Sanitization: Sanitize input to remove any potentially harmful characters or sequences.
      • Input Clamping: Use Phaser.Math.Clamp or similar functions to limit input values to acceptable ranges.
      • Type Safety: Ensure input is converted to the correct data type (e.g., parseInt, parseFloat with error handling) before being used in calculations or game logic.
      • Rate Limiting: Limit the frequency of input events to prevent spamming or rapid manipulation. Phaser's input events can fire very rapidly; handle this appropriately.

Attack Surface: Physics Engine Exploitation (via Phaser Physics APIs)

  • Description: Manipulating physics parameters exposed through Phaser's physics engine APIs (e.g., body.setVelocity, body.setGravity, body.setBounce) or collision callbacks (this.physics.add.collider) to cause unexpected behavior, crashes, or unfair advantages.
  • How Phaser Contributes: Phaser provides direct access to configure and control the physics engines (Arcade, Matter.js, P2). This power, if misused, creates the vulnerability. The developer is responsible for ensuring that physics interactions remain within safe and intended bounds.
  • Example: A game allows players to modify their character's gravity via a slider. If the slider's value is not properly clamped, an attacker could set an extremely high or negative gravity value, causing the character to fly off-screen, glitch through walls, or cause the physics engine to become unstable. Another example: manipulating collision callbacks to ignore collisions or trigger false collisions.
  • Impact: Game instability, crashes, unfair advantages, denial of service (if excessive physics calculations are triggered).
  • Risk Severity: High (especially in multiplayer games).
  • Mitigation Strategies:
    • Developer:
      • Parameter Validation: Strictly validate any user input that affects physics parameters exposed through Phaser's APIs. Clamp values to reasonable ranges using Phaser.Math.Clamp.
      • Realistic Physics: Use realistic physics settings and avoid extreme values. Thoroughly test the game with a wide range of physics parameter combinations.
      • Robust Collision Handling: Don't rely solely on Phaser's physics engine collision events (overlap, collide) for critical game logic. Implement additional checks and safeguards, especially if collision outcomes have significant consequences.
      • Server-Side Physics (if applicable): For multiplayer games, consider running the physics simulation on the server to prevent client-side manipulation of physics parameters or collision events.
      • Object Pooling: Limit the number of physics bodies that can be created and use object pooling to reduce performance overhead and the potential for DoS attacks.
      • Rate Limiting: Limit the frequency of actions that can create or interact with physics objects, especially if those interactions are computationally expensive.

Attack Surface: Custom Event Manipulation (via Phaser Event System)

  • Description: Exploiting Phaser's event system (this.events.emit, this.events.on) by triggering custom events with malicious payloads or at inappropriate times to disrupt game logic or gain an advantage. This is a direct attack on Phaser's event handling mechanism.
  • How Phaser Contributes: Phaser's event system is a core feature. The vulnerability arises when developers create custom events that directly modify sensitive game state without adequate protection against unauthorized triggering or malicious event data.
  • Example: A game defines a custom event: this.events.on('powerUp', (player, powerUpType) => { ... });. If an attacker can trigger this event from the browser console (e.g., game.events.emit('powerUp', player, 'superInvincibility')), they could gain an unfair advantage. The key is whether the developer has exposed this event in a way that allows external triggering.
  • Impact: Unfair advantages, cheating, bypassing game mechanics, potentially breaking the game, or causing unexpected behavior.
  • Risk Severity: High (if events control critical game logic or resources).
  • Mitigation Strategies:
    • Developer:
      • Event Scope Control: Carefully control the scope and accessibility of custom events. Avoid exposing events globally if they are only needed internally within a specific scene or object. Use scene-specific event emitters (this.scene.events) where appropriate.
      • Payload Validation: Always validate the data passed to event listeners. Check data types, ranges, and allowed values (whitelist approach). Treat event data as untrusted input.
      • Authorization Checks: If events modify sensitive game state, implement authorization checks within the event listener to ensure that only authorized sources (e.g., specific game objects or systems) can trigger them. Don't assume that an event was triggered by a legitimate source.
      • Secure Event Communication (if applicable): If events originate from external sources (e.g., a server), use secure communication channels (e.g., WebSockets over TLS) and validate the source and integrity of the event data.