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attack-surface.md

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Attack Surface Analysis for herotransitions/hero

Attack Surface: Denial of Service (DoS) via Complex Animations

  • Description: Attackers trigger excessively complex or long-running animations, consuming client-side resources (CPU/GPU).
  • Hero Contribution: Hero's core functionality is animation; it provides the mechanism for creating and controlling these potentially resource-intensive animations.
  • Example: An attacker manipulates a form field that controls animation duration, setting it to an extremely high value, causing the browser to freeze. Or, they trigger a transition that involves animating hundreds of complex SVG elements simultaneously.
  • Impact: Browser unresponsiveness, freezing, or crashing for the user. Potential for wider impact if the attack is coordinated (e.g., botnet).
  • Risk Severity: High
  • Mitigation Strategies:
    • Developer:
      • Implement strict input validation on all parameters affecting animation complexity (duration, easing, number of elements, etc.). Use whitelists where possible.
      • Set reasonable upper bounds on animation duration and complexity.
      • Use requestAnimationFrame responsibly and consider debouncing/throttling animation updates.
      • Monitor client-side performance metrics (e.g., using browser developer tools or performance monitoring libraries) to detect potential abuse.

Attack Surface: Denial of Service (DoS) via Excessive View Manipulation

  • Description: Attackers trigger the creation and animation of a large number of DOM elements, exhausting client-side memory.
  • Hero Contribution: Hero facilitates the manipulation and animation of views (DOM elements) during transitions.
  • Example: An attacker crafts input that causes Hero to animate a list with thousands of dynamically generated items, leading to excessive memory consumption.
  • Impact: Browser slowdown, freezing, or crashing due to memory exhaustion.
  • Risk Severity: High
  • Mitigation Strategies:
    • Developer:
      • Strictly limit the number of views that can be animated based on user input.
      • Validate and sanitize any data that influences the creation or modification of views within Hero transitions.
      • Implement pagination or lazy-loading for large datasets to avoid animating all elements at once.
      • Consider using virtualized lists or other techniques to minimize the number of DOM elements rendered at any given time.

Attack Surface: UI Redressing / Overlay Attacks

  • Description: Attackers use Hero animations to visually obscure or overlay security-critical UI elements, tricking users.
  • Hero Contribution: Hero's ability to animate and position elements makes it possible to create deceptive overlays.
  • Example: An attacker uses a Hero animation to move a transparent, malicious button over a legitimate "Login" button, capturing user credentials.
  • Impact: Users unknowingly interact with malicious elements, potentially leading to credential theft, unauthorized actions, or other security breaches.
  • Risk Severity: Critical
  • Mitigation Strategies:
    • Developer:
      • Ensure security-critical elements (login forms, confirmation buttons, etc.) are always rendered on top (highest z-index) and are not obscured by animated content.
      • Use techniques like shadow DOM to isolate security-sensitive components and prevent them from being manipulated by external scripts or styles.
      • Avoid animating elements in a way that could mislead users about their functionality.
      • Implement clickjacking protection mechanisms (e.g., X-Frame-Options header).

Attack Surface: Modifier Misuse / Logic Errors (High Severity Instances)

  • Description: Maliciously crafted Hero modifiers, specifically those that can lead to significant security issues, cause unexpected behavior or vulnerabilities. This focuses on the high-severity subset of modifier misuse.
  • Hero Contribution: Hero modifiers are the mechanism for controlling animation behavior; their misuse is directly tied to Hero.
  • Example: An attacker exploits a flaw in how a specific modifier interacts with z-index or opacity, allowing them to create an overlay attack (similar to the UI Redressing attack, but achieved through modifier manipulation). Or, a modifier is misused to bypass intended animation restrictions, leading to a DoS condition.
  • Impact: Potentially allows for UI redressing, denial of service, or other vulnerabilities that could compromise security.
  • Risk Severity: High
  • Mitigation Strategies:
    • Developer:
      • Thoroughly validate and sanitize any user input that influences Hero modifiers. Treat modifiers as a high-risk attack vector.
      • Implement a strict whitelist of allowed modifiers and their parameters. Never allow arbitrary modifier strings from untrusted sources.
      • Conduct rigorous security testing, specifically focusing on how different modifier combinations can be abused. Fuzz testing of modifier inputs is highly recommended.