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Attack Surface Analysis for mingrammer/diagrams

Attack Surface: Diagram Definition Code Injection

1. Diagram Definition Code Injection

  • Description: Vulnerability arising from dynamically generating diagram definitions (Python code using diagrams) based on user input or external data, allowing attackers to inject malicious Python code.
  • How Diagrams Contributes: diagrams library executes Python code to render diagrams. If the code generation process is flawed and incorporates unsanitized external input, it becomes vulnerable to injection, as diagrams will execute the resulting (potentially malicious) Python code.
  • Example:
    • An application takes user-provided node labels via a web form.
    • This label is directly inserted into the Python code that defines the diagram node using diagrams.
    • An attacker inputs a malicious label like: "; import os; os.system('evil_command');"
    • When the application executes this code with diagrams, the malicious command (evil_command in this example) is executed on the server.
  • Impact: Remote Code Execution (RCE), Server Compromise, Data Breach, Denial of Service.
  • Risk Severity: Critical
  • Mitigation Strategies:
    • Input Sanitization and Validation: Strictly sanitize and validate all user inputs or external data used to construct diagram definitions. Use allow-lists for allowed characters and patterns.
    • Parameterization/Templating: Instead of string concatenation to build diagram code, use templating engines or parameterization techniques that separate code structure from user-provided data.
    • Principle of Least Privilege: Run the diagram generation process with minimal necessary privileges to limit the impact of successful code injection.
    • Code Review: Thoroughly review code that generates diagram definitions to identify potential injection points.
    • Static Analysis Security Testing (SAST): Utilize SAST tools to automatically detect potential code injection vulnerabilities in the diagram generation logic.

Attack Surface: Denial of Service (DoS) via Diagram Complexity

2. Denial of Service (DoS) via Diagram Complexity

  • Description: Attackers exploit the computational cost of generating complex diagrams to overwhelm server resources, leading to application unavailability.
  • How Diagrams Contributes: diagrams library relies on graph processing and rendering, which can become resource-intensive for diagrams with a large number of nodes and edges. Generating extremely complex diagrams through diagrams can consume excessive server resources.
  • Example:
    • An application allows users to define diagrams with a variable number of nodes.
    • An attacker sends repeated requests to generate diagrams with an extremely large number of nodes (e.g., thousands or millions) using the application's diagram generation feature.
    • The server becomes overloaded trying to process these complex diagram requests initiated via diagrams, leading to slow response times or complete unresponsiveness for legitimate users.
  • Impact: Application Unavailability, Performance Degradation, Resource Exhaustion, Server Instability.
  • Risk Severity: High
  • Mitigation Strategies:
    • Input Validation and Limits: Implement limits on the complexity of diagrams that can be generated (e.g., maximum number of nodes, edges, depth). Validate user inputs to enforce these limits before passing them to diagrams.
    • Rate Limiting: Implement rate limiting to restrict the number of diagram generation requests from a single user or IP address within a given timeframe, especially for diagram generation endpoints.
    • Resource Monitoring and Alerting: Monitor server resource usage (CPU, memory) during diagram generation. Set up alerts to detect unusual spikes that might indicate a DoS attack targeting diagram generation.
    • Asynchronous Processing: Offload diagram generation to background tasks or queues to prevent blocking the main application thread and improve responsiveness, especially when dealing with potentially complex diagrams.
    • Caching: Cache generated diagrams where possible to avoid redundant processing for frequently requested diagrams, reducing the load on the server for repeated requests.