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Attack Tree Analysis for briannesbitt/carbon

Objective: To manipulate application logic or data by exploiting vulnerabilities in date/time handling provided by the Carbon library, leading to unauthorized access, data modification, or denial of service.

Attack Tree Visualization

Attack Goal: Compromise Application via Carbon Vulnerabilities [CRITICAL NODE]
├───[OR]─ Manipulate Application Logic via Date/Time Exploitation [HIGH-RISK PATH] [CRITICAL NODE]
│   ├───[AND]─ Exploit Parsing Vulnerabilities in Carbon
│   │   ├───[OR]─ Denial of Service via Complex Parsing [HIGH-RISK PATH] [CRITICAL NODE]
│   │   │   └───[LEAF]─ Provide extremely complex or malformed date strings that cause excessive processing time in Carbon parsing, leading to DoS.
│   ├───[AND]─ Exploit Calculation/Manipulation Vulnerabilities in Carbon [HIGH-RISK PATH] [CRITICAL NODE]
│   │   ├───[OR]─ Timezone Manipulation Exploits [HIGH-RISK PATH] [CRITICAL NODE]
│   │   │   └───[LEAF]─ Manipulate timezone settings in Carbon to cause logical errors in date comparisons, scheduling, or data retrieval based on time.
│   └───[AND]─ Exploit Serialization/Deserialization Vulnerabilities (If Applicable) [CRITICAL NODE]
│       ├───[OR]─ Unsafe Deserialization of Carbon Objects [HIGH-RISK PATH] [CRITICAL NODE]
│       │   └───[LEAF]─ If application deserializes Carbon objects from untrusted sources, exploit potential vulnerabilities in PHP's unserialize or similar mechanisms.
└───[OR]─ Exploit Dependencies of Carbon (Indirectly)
    └───[AND]─ Vulnerabilities in Underlying PHP Date/Time Functions [CRITICAL NODE]
        └───[LEAF]─ Exploit known vulnerabilities in PHP's core date/time functions that Carbon relies upon.

Attack Tree Path: Complex Parsing DoS

  • Description: Attacker floods the application with requests containing intentionally complex or malformed date strings. These strings are designed to consume excessive CPU time during Carbon's parsing process, leading to resource exhaustion and denial of service.
  • Likelihood: Medium
  • Impact: Medium (Service disruption, temporary unavailability)
  • Effort: Low
  • Skill Level: Low
  • Detection Difficulty: Medium-High (Distinguishing from legitimate load can be harder)
  • Mitigation Strategies:
    • Implement robust input validation and sanitization for date strings.
    • Set limits on the complexity or length of date strings accepted by the application.
    • Consider using rate limiting to prevent excessive requests with complex date strings.
    • Monitor server resource usage (CPU, memory) for unusual spikes related to date parsing.

Attack Tree Path: Timezone Manipulation Logic Bypass

  • Description: Attacker manipulates timezone settings (if the application allows it) to cause dates to be interpreted in the wrong timezone. This can lead to logical errors in date comparisons, scheduling, data retrieval, and potentially authorization bypass if time-based access controls are in place.
  • Likelihood: Medium
  • Impact: Medium-High (Logic errors, incorrect data access, scheduling failures, potential authorization bypass)
  • Effort: Low-Medium
  • Skill Level: Low-Medium
  • Detection Difficulty: Medium
  • Mitigation Strategies:
    • Carefully manage timezone settings within the application.
    • If users can set timezones, rigorously validate and sanitize timezone inputs to ensure they are valid and expected timezones. Use a whitelist of allowed timezones.
    • Be consistent in how timezones are handled throughout the application to avoid logical errors.
    • Consider storing dates in UTC in the database and converting to user-specific timezones only for display and user-facing logic.
    • Thoroughly test timezone handling logic, especially around date comparisons and time-sensitive operations.

Attack Tree Path: PHP Unserialize Vulnerability (Object Injection)

  • Description: If the application deserializes Carbon objects (or any PHP objects) from untrusted sources using PHP's unserialize() function, an attacker can inject malicious serialized data. When deserialized, this data can lead to Remote Code Execution (RCE) or other severe security breaches due to PHP object injection vulnerabilities.
  • Likelihood: Low (Assuming developers are generally aware of unserialize() risks)
  • Impact: Critical (Remote Code Execution, full system compromise)
  • Effort: Medium-High (Requires understanding of PHP serialization and object injection techniques)
  • Skill Level: High
  • Detection Difficulty: Low (Hard to detect before exploitation, prevention is key)
  • Mitigation Strategies:
    • Strongly avoid deserializing Carbon objects (or any objects) from untrusted sources using unserialize() in PHP. This is the most critical mitigation.
    • If serialization is necessary for data exchange, use safer formats like JSON. JSON serialization in PHP is generally safer than unserialize() for untrusted data.
    • If you absolutely must use PHP serialization, ensure you are only deserializing data from trusted sources.
    • Implement strong input validation and integrity checks (e.g., using cryptographic signatures) on serialized data before deserialization, even from seemingly trusted sources.
    • Consider using alternative serialization libraries or approaches that are less prone to object injection vulnerabilities.

Attack Tree Path: PHP Core Date/Time Vulnerability Exploitation

  • Description: Carbon relies on PHP's core date and time functions. If a vulnerability exists in these underlying PHP functions, it could be indirectly exploited through Carbon. This could lead to various impacts depending on the specific PHP vulnerability.
  • Likelihood: Very Low (PHP core vulnerabilities are generally rare and patched quickly)
  • Impact: High (Depends on the specific vulnerability, could be RCE, DoS, data corruption, etc.)
  • Effort: High (Requires finding and exploiting a core PHP vulnerability, often complex)
  • Skill Level: Expert
  • Detection Difficulty: Low-Medium (Depends on the vulnerability, some might be easily detectable, others not)
  • Mitigation Strategies:
    • Keep PHP updated to the latest stable version. This is crucial for patching known vulnerabilities in core PHP functions, including date/time functions.
    • Stay informed about security advisories related to PHP and its core functionalities. Subscribe to PHP security mailing lists and monitor security news sources.
    • While you cannot directly fix PHP core vulnerabilities, using the latest patched version is the primary defense.
    • In very security-sensitive applications, consider using static analysis tools that can detect potential vulnerabilities arising from the interaction between Carbon and underlying PHP functions.