Skip to content

Latest commit

 

History

History
20 lines (13 loc) · 2.7 KB

threat-modeling.md

File metadata and controls

20 lines (13 loc) · 2.7 KB

Threat Model Analysis for flipboard/flanimatedimage

Threat: Malicious GIF/APNG Parsing Vulnerability

  • Description: An attacker provides a specially crafted GIF or APNG image. When flanimatedimage parses this malicious file, it triggers a vulnerability in the image decoding logic. This could be delivered through websites displaying attacker-controlled images or via user-uploaded content. Exploitation could involve triggering specific parsing paths within flanimatedimage that are vulnerable to buffer overflows, integer overflows, or other memory corruption issues.

  • Impact:

    • Memory Corruption: Parsing errors lead to critical memory corruption vulnerabilities like buffer overflows or heap overflows. This can be exploited to overwrite critical data structures or program code in memory.
    • Potential Code Execution: Successful exploitation of memory corruption vulnerabilities could allow a sophisticated attacker to execute arbitrary code on the user's device. This grants the attacker full control over the application and potentially the device itself.
    • Denial of Service (DoS): A malformed image could cause a critical parsing error leading to immediate application crash or hang, effectively denying service.

  • Affected Component: Image Decoding Module (specifically the core GIF and APNG parsing functions within flanimatedimage).

  • Risk Severity: High to Critical. The potential for code execution elevates this to a critical risk in worst-case scenarios. Even without code execution, memory corruption and DoS are severe impacts.

  • Mitigation Strategies:

    • Critical: Keep flanimatedimage Updated: Immediately update to the latest version of flanimatedimage. Security patches for parsing vulnerabilities are critical and are often addressed in library updates. Monitor the flanimatedimage repository and security advisories for updates.
    • Sandboxing (Advanced, High Security Environments): For applications handling untrusted image sources and requiring very high security, consider isolating the image decoding process within a secure sandbox or separate process. This limits the damage if a parsing vulnerability is exploited.
    • Strict Input Validation (Limited but Recommended): While format-specific parsing vulnerabilities are hard to prevent with generic input validation, implement basic checks like file size limits and rudimentary header validation before passing images to flanimatedimage. This offers a minimal layer of defense against trivially malicious files, but is not a primary mitigation for sophisticated attacks. Focus on keeping the library updated as the primary defense.