ViewVC Help
View File | Revision Log | Show Annotations | Download File
/cvs/CBOR-XS/XS.pm
Revision: 1.77
Committed: Fri Dec 4 02:57:14 2020 UTC (3 years, 5 months ago) by root
Branch: MAIN
Changes since 1.76: +28 -6 lines
Log Message:
*** empty log message ***

File Contents

# User Rev Content
1 root 1.1 =head1 NAME
2    
3     CBOR::XS - Concise Binary Object Representation (CBOR, RFC7049)
4    
5     =encoding utf-8
6    
7     =head1 SYNOPSIS
8    
9     use CBOR::XS;
10    
11     $binary_cbor_data = encode_cbor $perl_value;
12     $perl_value = decode_cbor $binary_cbor_data;
13    
14     # OO-interface
15    
16     $coder = CBOR::XS->new;
17 root 1.6 $binary_cbor_data = $coder->encode ($perl_value);
18     $perl_value = $coder->decode ($binary_cbor_data);
19    
20     # prefix decoding
21    
22     my $many_cbor_strings = ...;
23     while (length $many_cbor_strings) {
24     my ($data, $length) = $cbor->decode_prefix ($many_cbor_strings);
25     # data was decoded
26     substr $many_cbor_strings, 0, $length, ""; # remove decoded cbor string
27     }
28 root 1.1
29     =head1 DESCRIPTION
30    
31 root 1.5 This module converts Perl data structures to the Concise Binary Object
32     Representation (CBOR) and vice versa. CBOR is a fast binary serialisation
33 root 1.28 format that aims to use an (almost) superset of the JSON data model, i.e.
34     when you can represent something useful in JSON, you should be able to
35     represent it in CBOR.
36 root 1.1
37 root 1.28 In short, CBOR is a faster and quite compact binary alternative to JSON,
38 root 1.10 with the added ability of supporting serialisation of Perl objects. (JSON
39     often compresses better than CBOR though, so if you plan to compress the
40 root 1.28 data later and speed is less important you might want to compare both
41     formats first).
42 root 1.5
43 root 1.68 The primary goal of this module is to be I<correct> and the secondary goal
44     is to be I<fast>. To reach the latter goal it was written in C.
45    
46 root 1.15 To give you a general idea about speed, with texts in the megabyte range,
47     C<CBOR::XS> usually encodes roughly twice as fast as L<Storable> or
48     L<JSON::XS> and decodes about 15%-30% faster than those. The shorter the
49     data, the worse L<Storable> performs in comparison.
50    
51 root 1.28 Regarding compactness, C<CBOR::XS>-encoded data structures are usually
52     about 20% smaller than the same data encoded as (compact) JSON or
53     L<Storable>.
54    
55     In addition to the core CBOR data format, this module implements a
56 root 1.31 number of extensions, to support cyclic and shared data structures
57     (see C<allow_sharing> and C<allow_cycles>), string deduplication (see
58     C<pack_strings>) and scalar references (always enabled).
59 root 1.21
60 root 1.1 See MAPPING, below, on how CBOR::XS maps perl values to CBOR values and
61     vice versa.
62    
63     =cut
64    
65     package CBOR::XS;
66    
67     use common::sense;
68    
69 root 1.76 our $VERSION = 1.82;
70 root 1.1 our @ISA = qw(Exporter);
71    
72     our @EXPORT = qw(encode_cbor decode_cbor);
73    
74     use Exporter;
75     use XSLoader;
76    
77 root 1.6 use Types::Serialiser;
78    
79 root 1.3 our $MAGIC = "\xd9\xd9\xf7";
80    
81 root 1.1 =head1 FUNCTIONAL INTERFACE
82    
83     The following convenience methods are provided by this module. They are
84     exported by default:
85    
86     =over 4
87    
88     =item $cbor_data = encode_cbor $perl_scalar
89    
90     Converts the given Perl data structure to CBOR representation. Croaks on
91     error.
92    
93     =item $perl_scalar = decode_cbor $cbor_data
94    
95     The opposite of C<encode_cbor>: expects a valid CBOR string to parse,
96     returning the resulting perl scalar. Croaks on error.
97    
98     =back
99    
100    
101     =head1 OBJECT-ORIENTED INTERFACE
102    
103     The object oriented interface lets you configure your own encoding or
104     decoding style, within the limits of supported formats.
105    
106     =over 4
107    
108     =item $cbor = new CBOR::XS
109    
110     Creates a new CBOR::XS object that can be used to de/encode CBOR
111     strings. All boolean flags described below are by default I<disabled>.
112    
113     The mutators for flags all return the CBOR object again and thus calls can
114     be chained:
115    
116     my $cbor = CBOR::XS->new->encode ({a => [1,2]});
117    
118 root 1.65 =item $cbor = new_safe CBOR::XS
119    
120     Create a new, safe/secure CBOR::XS object. This is similar to C<new>,
121     but configures the coder object to be safe to use with untrusted
122     data. Currently, this is equivalent to:
123    
124     my $cbor = CBOR::XS
125     ->new
126     ->forbid_objects
127     ->filter (\&CBOR::XS::safe_filter)
128     ->max_size (1e8);
129    
130     But is more future proof (it is better to crash because of a change than
131     to be exploited in other ways).
132    
133     =cut
134    
135     sub new_safe {
136     CBOR::XS
137     ->new
138     ->forbid_objects
139     ->filter (\&CBOR::XS::safe_filter)
140     ->max_size (1e8)
141     }
142    
143 root 1.1 =item $cbor = $cbor->max_depth ([$maximum_nesting_depth])
144    
145     =item $max_depth = $cbor->get_max_depth
146    
147     Sets the maximum nesting level (default C<512>) accepted while encoding
148     or decoding. If a higher nesting level is detected in CBOR data or a Perl
149     data structure, then the encoder and decoder will stop and croak at that
150     point.
151    
152     Nesting level is defined by number of hash- or arrayrefs that the encoder
153     needs to traverse to reach a given point or the number of C<{> or C<[>
154     characters without their matching closing parenthesis crossed to reach a
155     given character in a string.
156    
157     Setting the maximum depth to one disallows any nesting, so that ensures
158     that the object is only a single hash/object or array.
159    
160     If no argument is given, the highest possible setting will be used, which
161     is rarely useful.
162    
163     Note that nesting is implemented by recursion in C. The default value has
164     been chosen to be as large as typical operating systems allow without
165     crashing.
166    
167 root 1.65 See L<SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS>, below, for more info on why this is useful.
168 root 1.1
169     =item $cbor = $cbor->max_size ([$maximum_string_size])
170    
171     =item $max_size = $cbor->get_max_size
172    
173     Set the maximum length a CBOR string may have (in bytes) where decoding
174     is being attempted. The default is C<0>, meaning no limit. When C<decode>
175     is called on a string that is longer then this many bytes, it will not
176     attempt to decode the string but throw an exception. This setting has no
177     effect on C<encode> (yet).
178    
179     If no argument is given, the limit check will be deactivated (same as when
180     C<0> is specified).
181    
182 root 1.65 See L<SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS>, below, for more info on why this is useful.
183 root 1.1
184 root 1.19 =item $cbor = $cbor->allow_unknown ([$enable])
185    
186     =item $enabled = $cbor->get_allow_unknown
187    
188     If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then C<encode> will I<not> throw an
189     exception when it encounters values it cannot represent in CBOR (for
190     example, filehandles) but instead will encode a CBOR C<error> value.
191    
192     If C<$enable> is false (the default), then C<encode> will throw an
193     exception when it encounters anything it cannot encode as CBOR.
194    
195     This option does not affect C<decode> in any way, and it is recommended to
196     leave it off unless you know your communications partner.
197    
198 root 1.20 =item $cbor = $cbor->allow_sharing ([$enable])
199 root 1.19
200 root 1.20 =item $enabled = $cbor->get_allow_sharing
201 root 1.19
202     If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then C<encode> will not double-encode
203 root 1.20 values that have been referenced before (e.g. when the same object, such
204     as an array, is referenced multiple times), but instead will emit a
205     reference to the earlier value.
206 root 1.19
207     This means that such values will only be encoded once, and will not result
208     in a deep cloning of the value on decode, in decoders supporting the value
209 root 1.25 sharing extension. This also makes it possible to encode cyclic data
210 root 1.62 structures (which need C<allow_cycles> to be enabled to be decoded by this
211 root 1.31 module).
212 root 1.19
213 root 1.21 It is recommended to leave it off unless you know your
214     communication partner supports the value sharing extensions to CBOR
215 root 1.26 (L<http://cbor.schmorp.de/value-sharing>), as without decoder support, the
216 root 1.25 resulting data structure might be unusable.
217 root 1.21
218 root 1.19 Detecting shared values incurs a runtime overhead when values are encoded
219     that have a reference counter large than one, and might unnecessarily
220 root 1.69 increase the encoded size, as potentially shared values are encoded as
221 root 1.31 shareable whether or not they are actually shared.
222 root 1.19
223 root 1.20 At the moment, only targets of references can be shared (e.g. scalars,
224     arrays or hashes pointed to by a reference). Weirder constructs, such as
225     an array with multiple "copies" of the I<same> string, which are hard but
226     not impossible to create in Perl, are not supported (this is the same as
227 root 1.25 with L<Storable>).
228 root 1.19
229 root 1.25 If C<$enable> is false (the default), then C<encode> will encode shared
230     data structures repeatedly, unsharing them in the process. Cyclic data
231     structures cannot be encoded in this mode.
232 root 1.19
233     This option does not affect C<decode> in any way - shared values and
234 root 1.21 references will always be decoded properly if present.
235    
236 root 1.31 =item $cbor = $cbor->allow_cycles ([$enable])
237    
238     =item $enabled = $cbor->get_allow_cycles
239    
240     If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then C<decode> will happily decode
241     self-referential (cyclic) data structures. By default these will not be
242     decoded, as they need manual cleanup to avoid memory leaks, so code that
243     isn't prepared for this will not leak memory.
244    
245     If C<$enable> is false (the default), then C<decode> will throw an error
246     when it encounters a self-referential/cyclic data structure.
247    
248 root 1.41 FUTURE DIRECTION: the motivation behind this option is to avoid I<real>
249     cycles - future versions of this module might chose to decode cyclic data
250     structures using weak references when this option is off, instead of
251     throwing an error.
252    
253 root 1.31 This option does not affect C<encode> in any way - shared values and
254 root 1.42 references will always be encoded properly if present.
255 root 1.31
256 root 1.65 =item $cbor = $cbor->forbid_objects ([$enable])
257    
258     =item $enabled = $cbor->get_forbid_objects
259    
260     Disables the use of the object serialiser protocol.
261    
262     If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then C<encode> will will throw an
263     exception when it encounters perl objects that would be encoded using the
264     perl-object tag (26). When C<decode> encounters such tags, it will fall
265     back to the general filter/tagged logic as if this were an unknown tag (by
266     default resulting in a C<CBOR::XC::Tagged> object).
267    
268     If C<$enable> is false (the default), then C<encode> will use the
269     L<Types::Serialiser> object serialisation protocol to serialise objects
270     into perl-object tags, and C<decode> will do the same to decode such tags.
271    
272     See L<SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS>, below, for more info on why forbidding this
273     protocol can be useful.
274    
275 root 1.25 =item $cbor = $cbor->pack_strings ([$enable])
276 root 1.21
277 root 1.25 =item $enabled = $cbor->get_pack_strings
278 root 1.21
279     If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then C<encode> will try not to encode
280     the same string twice, but will instead encode a reference to the string
281 root 1.25 instead. Depending on your data format, this can save a lot of space, but
282 root 1.21 also results in a very large runtime overhead (expect encoding times to be
283     2-4 times as high as without).
284    
285     It is recommended to leave it off unless you know your
286     communications partner supports the stringref extension to CBOR
287 root 1.26 (L<http://cbor.schmorp.de/stringref>), as without decoder support, the
288 root 1.25 resulting data structure might not be usable.
289 root 1.21
290 root 1.25 If C<$enable> is false (the default), then C<encode> will encode strings
291     the standard CBOR way.
292 root 1.21
293     This option does not affect C<decode> in any way - string references will
294     always be decoded properly if present.
295 root 1.19
296 root 1.52 =item $cbor = $cbor->text_keys ([$enable])
297    
298     =item $enabled = $cbor->get_text_keys
299    
300     If C<$enabled> is true (or missing), then C<encode> will encode all
301     perl hash keys as CBOR text strings/UTF-8 string, upgrading them as needed.
302    
303     If C<$enable> is false (the default), then C<encode> will encode hash keys
304     normally - upgraded perl strings (strings internally encoded as UTF-8) as
305     CBOR text strings, and downgraded perl strings as CBOR byte strings.
306    
307     This option does not affect C<decode> in any way.
308    
309     This option is useful for interoperability with CBOR decoders that don't
310     treat byte strings as a form of text. It is especially useful as Perl
311     gives very little control over hash keys.
312    
313     Enabling this option can be slow, as all downgraded hash keys that are
314     encoded need to be scanned and converted to UTF-8.
315    
316     =item $cbor = $cbor->text_strings ([$enable])
317    
318     =item $enabled = $cbor->get_text_strings
319    
320     This option works similar to C<text_keys>, above, but works on all strings
321     (including hash keys), so C<text_keys> has no further effect after
322     enabling C<text_strings>.
323    
324     If C<$enabled> is true (or missing), then C<encode> will encode all perl
325     strings as CBOR text strings/UTF-8 strings, upgrading them as needed.
326    
327     If C<$enable> is false (the default), then C<encode> will encode strings
328     normally (but see C<text_keys>) - upgraded perl strings (strings
329     internally encoded as UTF-8) as CBOR text strings, and downgraded perl
330     strings as CBOR byte strings.
331    
332     This option does not affect C<decode> in any way.
333    
334     This option has similar advantages and disadvantages as C<text_keys>. In
335 root 1.71 addition, this option effectively removes the ability to automatically
336     encode byte strings, which might break some C<FREEZE> and C<TO_CBOR>
337     methods that rely on this.
338    
339     A workaround is to use explicit type casts, which are unaffected by this option.
340 root 1.52
341 root 1.33 =item $cbor = $cbor->validate_utf8 ([$enable])
342    
343     =item $enabled = $cbor->get_validate_utf8
344    
345     If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then C<decode> will validate that
346     elements (text strings) containing UTF-8 data in fact contain valid UTF-8
347     data (instead of blindly accepting it). This validation obviously takes
348     extra time during decoding.
349    
350     The concept of "valid UTF-8" used is perl's concept, which is a superset
351     of the official UTF-8.
352    
353     If C<$enable> is false (the default), then C<decode> will blindly accept
354     UTF-8 data, marking them as valid UTF-8 in the resulting data structure
355 root 1.51 regardless of whether that's true or not.
356 root 1.33
357     Perl isn't too happy about corrupted UTF-8 in strings, but should
358     generally not crash or do similarly evil things. Extensions might be not
359     so forgiving, so it's recommended to turn on this setting if you receive
360     untrusted CBOR.
361    
362     This option does not affect C<encode> in any way - strings that are
363     supposedly valid UTF-8 will simply be dumped into the resulting CBOR
364     string without checking whether that is, in fact, true or not.
365    
366 root 1.23 =item $cbor = $cbor->filter ([$cb->($tag, $value)])
367    
368     =item $cb_or_undef = $cbor->get_filter
369    
370 root 1.24 Sets or replaces the tagged value decoding filter (when C<$cb> is
371     specified) or clears the filter (if no argument or C<undef> is provided).
372    
373     The filter callback is called only during decoding, when a non-enforced
374     tagged value has been decoded (see L<TAG HANDLING AND EXTENSIONS> for a
375     list of enforced tags). For specific tags, it's often better to provide a
376     default converter using the C<%CBOR::XS::FILTER> hash (see below).
377    
378     The first argument is the numerical tag, the second is the (decoded) value
379     that has been tagged.
380    
381     The filter function should return either exactly one value, which will
382     replace the tagged value in the decoded data structure, or no values,
383     which will result in default handling, which currently means the decoder
384     creates a C<CBOR::XS::Tagged> object to hold the tag and the value.
385    
386     When the filter is cleared (the default state), the default filter
387 root 1.65 function, C<CBOR::XS::default_filter>, is used. This function simply
388     looks up the tag in the C<%CBOR::XS::FILTER> hash. If an entry exists
389     it must be a code reference that is called with tag and value, and is
390     responsible for decoding the value. If no entry exists, it returns no
391     values. C<CBOR::XS> provides a number of default filter functions already,
392     the the C<%CBOR::XS::FILTER> hash can be freely extended with more.
393    
394     C<CBOR::XS> additionally provides an alternative filter function that is
395     supposed to be safe to use with untrusted data (which the default filter
396     might not), called C<CBOR::XS::safe_filter>, which works the same as
397     the C<default_filter> but uses the C<%CBOR::XS::SAFE_FILTER> variable
398     instead. It is prepopulated with the tag decoding functions that are
399     deemed safe (basically the same as C<%CBOR::XS::FILTER> without all
400     the bignum tags), and can be extended by user code as wlel, although,
401     obviously, one should be very careful about adding decoding functions
402     here, since the expectation is that they are safe to use on untrusted
403     data, after all.
404 root 1.24
405 root 1.28 Example: decode all tags not handled internally into C<CBOR::XS::Tagged>
406 root 1.24 objects, with no other special handling (useful when working with
407     potentially "unsafe" CBOR data).
408    
409     CBOR::XS->new->filter (sub { })->decode ($cbor_data);
410    
411     Example: provide a global filter for tag 1347375694, converting the value
412     into some string form.
413    
414     $CBOR::XS::FILTER{1347375694} = sub {
415     my ($tag, $value);
416    
417     "tag 1347375694 value $value"
418     };
419 root 1.23
420 root 1.65 Example: provide your own filter function that looks up tags in your own
421     hash:
422    
423     my %my_filter = (
424     998347484 => sub {
425     my ($tag, $value);
426    
427     "tag 998347484 value $value"
428     };
429     );
430    
431     my $coder = CBOR::XS->new->filter (sub {
432     &{ $my_filter{$_[0]} or return }
433     });
434    
435    
436     Example: use the safe filter function (see L<SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS> for
437     more considerations on security).
438    
439     CBOR::XS->new->filter (\&CBOR::XS::safe_filter)->decode ($cbor_data);
440    
441 root 1.1 =item $cbor_data = $cbor->encode ($perl_scalar)
442    
443     Converts the given Perl data structure (a scalar value) to its CBOR
444     representation.
445    
446     =item $perl_scalar = $cbor->decode ($cbor_data)
447    
448     The opposite of C<encode>: expects CBOR data and tries to parse it,
449     returning the resulting simple scalar or reference. Croaks on error.
450    
451     =item ($perl_scalar, $octets) = $cbor->decode_prefix ($cbor_data)
452    
453     This works like the C<decode> method, but instead of raising an exception
454     when there is trailing garbage after the CBOR string, it will silently
455     stop parsing there and return the number of characters consumed so far.
456    
457     This is useful if your CBOR texts are not delimited by an outer protocol
458     and you need to know where the first CBOR string ends amd the next one
459 root 1.70 starts - CBOR strings are self-delimited, so it is possible to concatenate
460     CBOR strings without any delimiters or size fields and recover their data.
461 root 1.1
462     CBOR::XS->new->decode_prefix ("......")
463     => ("...", 3)
464    
465     =back
466    
467 root 1.39 =head2 INCREMENTAL PARSING
468    
469     In some cases, there is the need for incremental parsing of JSON
470     texts. While this module always has to keep both CBOR text and resulting
471     Perl data structure in memory at one time, it does allow you to parse a
472     CBOR stream incrementally, using a similar to using "decode_prefix" to see
473     if a full CBOR object is available, but is much more efficient.
474    
475     It basically works by parsing as much of a CBOR string as possible - if
476     the CBOR data is not complete yet, the pasrer will remember where it was,
477     to be able to restart when more data has been accumulated. Once enough
478     data is available to either decode a complete CBOR value or raise an
479     error, a real decode will be attempted.
480    
481     A typical use case would be a network protocol that consists of sending
482     and receiving CBOR-encoded messages. The solution that works with CBOR and
483     about anything else is by prepending a length to every CBOR value, so the
484     receiver knows how many octets to read. More compact (and slightly slower)
485     would be to just send CBOR values back-to-back, as C<CBOR::XS> knows where
486     a CBOR value ends, and doesn't need an explicit length.
487    
488     The following methods help with this:
489    
490     =over 4
491    
492     =item @decoded = $cbor->incr_parse ($buffer)
493    
494     This method attempts to decode exactly one CBOR value from the beginning
495     of the given C<$buffer>. The value is removed from the C<$buffer> on
496     success. When C<$buffer> doesn't contain a complete value yet, it returns
497     nothing. Finally, when the C<$buffer> doesn't start with something
498     that could ever be a valid CBOR value, it raises an exception, just as
499     C<decode> would. In the latter case the decoder state is undefined and
500     must be reset before being able to parse further.
501    
502     This method modifies the C<$buffer> in place. When no CBOR value can be
503     decoded, the decoder stores the current string offset. On the next call,
504     continues decoding at the place where it stopped before. For this to make
505     sense, the C<$buffer> must begin with the same octets as on previous
506     unsuccessful calls.
507    
508     You can call this method in scalar context, in which case it either
509     returns a decoded value or C<undef>. This makes it impossible to
510     distinguish between CBOR null values (which decode to C<undef>) and an
511     unsuccessful decode, which is often acceptable.
512    
513     =item @decoded = $cbor->incr_parse_multiple ($buffer)
514    
515     Same as C<incr_parse>, but attempts to decode as many CBOR values as
516     possible in one go, instead of at most one. Calls to C<incr_parse> and
517     C<incr_parse_multiple> can be interleaved.
518    
519     =item $cbor->incr_reset
520    
521     Resets the incremental decoder. This throws away any saved state, so that
522     subsequent calls to C<incr_parse> or C<incr_parse_multiple> start to parse
523     a new CBOR value from the beginning of the C<$buffer> again.
524    
525 root 1.61 This method can be called at any time, but it I<must> be called if you want
526 root 1.39 to change your C<$buffer> or there was a decoding error and you want to
527     reuse the C<$cbor> object for future incremental parsings.
528    
529     =back
530    
531 root 1.1
532     =head1 MAPPING
533    
534     This section describes how CBOR::XS maps Perl values to CBOR values and
535     vice versa. These mappings are designed to "do the right thing" in most
536     circumstances automatically, preserving round-tripping characteristics
537     (what you put in comes out as something equivalent).
538    
539     For the more enlightened: note that in the following descriptions,
540     lowercase I<perl> refers to the Perl interpreter, while uppercase I<Perl>
541     refers to the abstract Perl language itself.
542    
543    
544     =head2 CBOR -> PERL
545    
546     =over 4
547    
548 root 1.4 =item integers
549    
550     CBOR integers become (numeric) perl scalars. On perls without 64 bit
551     support, 64 bit integers will be truncated or otherwise corrupted.
552    
553     =item byte strings
554    
555 root 1.27 Byte strings will become octet strings in Perl (the Byte values 0..255
556 root 1.4 will simply become characters of the same value in Perl).
557    
558     =item UTF-8 strings
559    
560     UTF-8 strings in CBOR will be decoded, i.e. the UTF-8 octets will be
561     decoded into proper Unicode code points. At the moment, the validity of
562     the UTF-8 octets will not be validated - corrupt input will result in
563     corrupted Perl strings.
564    
565     =item arrays, maps
566    
567     CBOR arrays and CBOR maps will be converted into references to a Perl
568     array or hash, respectively. The keys of the map will be stringified
569     during this process.
570    
571 root 1.6 =item null
572    
573     CBOR null becomes C<undef> in Perl.
574    
575     =item true, false, undefined
576 root 1.1
577 root 1.6 These CBOR values become C<Types:Serialiser::true>,
578     C<Types:Serialiser::false> and C<Types::Serialiser::error>,
579 root 1.1 respectively. They are overloaded to act almost exactly like the numbers
580 root 1.6 C<1> and C<0> (for true and false) or to throw an exception on access (for
581     error). See the L<Types::Serialiser> manpage for details.
582    
583 root 1.23 =item tagged values
584 root 1.1
585 root 1.23 Tagged items consists of a numeric tag and another CBOR value.
586 root 1.4
587 root 1.23 See L<TAG HANDLING AND EXTENSIONS> and the description of C<< ->filter >>
588 root 1.28 for details on which tags are handled how.
589 root 1.4
590     =item anything else
591    
592     Anything else (e.g. unsupported simple values) will raise a decoding
593     error.
594 root 1.1
595     =back
596    
597    
598     =head2 PERL -> CBOR
599    
600     The mapping from Perl to CBOR is slightly more difficult, as Perl is a
601 root 1.28 typeless language. That means this module can only guess which CBOR type
602     is meant by a perl value.
603 root 1.1
604     =over 4
605    
606     =item hash references
607    
608 root 1.4 Perl hash references become CBOR maps. As there is no inherent ordering in
609     hash keys (or CBOR maps), they will usually be encoded in a pseudo-random
610 root 1.49 order. This order can be different each time a hash is encoded.
611 root 1.4
612     Currently, tied hashes will use the indefinite-length format, while normal
613     hashes will use the fixed-length format.
614 root 1.1
615     =item array references
616    
617 root 1.4 Perl array references become fixed-length CBOR arrays.
618 root 1.1
619     =item other references
620    
621 root 1.28 Other unblessed references will be represented using
622     the indirection tag extension (tag value C<22098>,
623     L<http://cbor.schmorp.de/indirection>). CBOR decoders are guaranteed
624     to be able to decode these values somehow, by either "doing the right
625     thing", decoding into a generic tagged object, simply ignoring the tag, or
626     something else.
627 root 1.4
628     =item CBOR::XS::Tagged objects
629    
630     Objects of this type must be arrays consisting of a single C<[tag, value]>
631 root 1.13 pair. The (numerical) tag will be encoded as a CBOR tag, the value will
632 root 1.28 be encoded as appropriate for the value. You must use C<CBOR::XS::tag> to
633 root 1.13 create such objects.
634 root 1.1
635 root 1.6 =item Types::Serialiser::true, Types::Serialiser::false, Types::Serialiser::error
636 root 1.1
637 root 1.6 These special values become CBOR true, CBOR false and CBOR undefined
638     values, respectively. You can also use C<\1>, C<\0> and C<\undef> directly
639     if you want.
640 root 1.1
641 root 1.7 =item other blessed objects
642 root 1.1
643 root 1.7 Other blessed objects are serialised via C<TO_CBOR> or C<FREEZE>. See
644 root 1.23 L<TAG HANDLING AND EXTENSIONS> for specific classes handled by this
645     module, and L<OBJECT SERIALISATION> for generic object serialisation.
646 root 1.1
647     =item simple scalars
648    
649     Simple Perl scalars (any scalar that is not a reference) are the most
650     difficult objects to encode: CBOR::XS will encode undefined scalars as
651 root 1.4 CBOR null values, scalars that have last been used in a string context
652 root 1.1 before encoding as CBOR strings, and anything else as number value:
653    
654     # dump as number
655     encode_cbor [2] # yields [2]
656     encode_cbor [-3.0e17] # yields [-3e+17]
657     my $value = 5; encode_cbor [$value] # yields [5]
658    
659 root 1.27 # used as string, so dump as string (either byte or text)
660 root 1.1 print $value;
661     encode_cbor [$value] # yields ["5"]
662    
663     # undef becomes null
664     encode_cbor [undef] # yields [null]
665    
666     You can force the type to be a CBOR string by stringifying it:
667    
668     my $x = 3.1; # some variable containing a number
669     "$x"; # stringified
670     $x .= ""; # another, more awkward way to stringify
671     print $x; # perl does it for you, too, quite often
672    
673 root 1.53 You can force whether a string is encoded as byte or text string by using
674 root 1.71 C<utf8::upgrade> and C<utf8::downgrade> (if C<text_strings> is disabled).
675 root 1.27
676     utf8::upgrade $x; # encode $x as text string
677     utf8::downgrade $x; # encode $x as byte string
678    
679 root 1.71 More options are available, see L<TYPE CASTS>, below, and the C<text_keys>
680     and C<text_strings> options.
681    
682 root 1.27 Perl doesn't define what operations up- and downgrade strings, so if the
683     difference between byte and text is important, you should up- or downgrade
684 root 1.53 your string as late as possible before encoding. You can also force the
685     use of CBOR text strings by using C<text_keys> or C<text_strings>.
686 root 1.27
687 root 1.1 You can force the type to be a CBOR number by numifying it:
688    
689     my $x = "3"; # some variable containing a string
690     $x += 0; # numify it, ensuring it will be dumped as a number
691     $x *= 1; # same thing, the choice is yours.
692    
693     You can not currently force the type in other, less obscure, ways. Tell me
694     if you need this capability (but don't forget to explain why it's needed
695     :).
696    
697 root 1.4 Perl values that seem to be integers generally use the shortest possible
698     representation. Floating-point values will use either the IEEE single
699     format if possible without loss of precision, otherwise the IEEE double
700     format will be used. Perls that use formats other than IEEE double to
701     represent numerical values are supported, but might suffer loss of
702     precision.
703 root 1.1
704     =back
705    
706 root 1.71 =head2 TYPE CASTS
707    
708     B<EXPERIMENTAL>: As an experimental extension, C<CBOR::XS> allows you to
709     force specific cbor types to be used when encoding. That allows you to
710     encode types not normally accessible (e.g. half floats) as well as force
711     string types even when C<text_strings> is in effect.
712    
713     Type forcing is done by calling a special "cast" function which keeps a
714     copy of the value and returns a new value that can be handed over to any
715     CBOR encoder function.
716    
717     The following casts are currently available (all of which are unary operators):
718    
719     =over
720    
721 root 1.72 =item CBOR::XS::as_int $value
722    
723     Forces the value to be encoded as some form of (basic, not bignum) integer
724     type.
725    
726 root 1.71 =item CBOR::XS::as_text $value
727    
728     Forces the value to be encoded as (UTF-8) text values.
729    
730     =item CBOR::XS::as_bytes $value
731    
732     Forces the value to be encoded as a (binary) string value.
733    
734 root 1.77 Example: encode a perl string as binary even though C<text_strings> is in
735     effect.
736    
737     CBOR::XS->new->text_strings->encode ([4, "text", CBOR::XS::bytes "bytevalue"]);
738    
739 root 1.75 =item CBOR::XS::as_bool $value
740    
741     Converts a Perl boolean (which can be any kind of scalar) into a CBOR
742 root 1.76 boolean. Strictly the same, but shorter to write, than:
743 root 1.75
744     $value ? Types::Serialiser::true : Types::Serialiser::false
745    
746 root 1.71 =item CBOR::XS::as_float16 $value
747    
748     Forces half-float (IEEE 754 binary16) encoding of the given value.
749    
750     =item CBOR::XS::as_float32 $value
751    
752     Forces single-float (IEEE 754 binary32) encoding of the given value.
753    
754     =item CBOR::XS::as_float64 $value
755    
756     Forces double-float (IEEE 754 binary64) encoding of the given value.
757    
758 root 1.77 =item CBOR::XS::as_cbor $cbor_text
759 root 1.71
760 root 1.77 Not a type cast per-se, this type cast forces the argument to eb encoded
761 root 1.71 as-is. This can be used to embed pre-encoded CBOR data.
762    
763     Note that no checking on the validity of the C<$cbor_text> is done - it's
764     the callers responsibility to correctly encode values.
765    
766 root 1.77 =item CBOR::XS::as_map [key => value...]
767    
768     Treat the array reference as key value pairs and output a CBOR map. This
769     allows you to generate CBOR maps with arbitrary key types (or, if you
770     don't care about semantics, duplicate keys or prairs in a custom order),
771     which is otherwise hard to do with Perl.
772    
773     The single argument must be an array reference with an even number of
774     elements.
775    
776     Example: encode a CBOR map with a string and an integer as keys.
777 root 1.71
778 root 1.77 encode_cbor CBOR::XS::as_map [string => "value", 5 => "value"]
779 root 1.71
780 root 1.77 =back
781 root 1.71
782     =cut
783    
784 root 1.74 sub CBOR::XS::as_cbor ($) { bless [$_[0], 0, undef], CBOR::XS::Tagged:: }
785     sub CBOR::XS::as_int ($) { bless [$_[0], 1, undef], CBOR::XS::Tagged:: }
786 root 1.72 sub CBOR::XS::as_bytes ($) { bless [$_[0], 2, undef], CBOR::XS::Tagged:: }
787     sub CBOR::XS::as_text ($) { bless [$_[0], 3, undef], CBOR::XS::Tagged:: }
788     sub CBOR::XS::as_float16 ($) { bless [$_[0], 4, undef], CBOR::XS::Tagged:: }
789     sub CBOR::XS::as_float32 ($) { bless [$_[0], 5, undef], CBOR::XS::Tagged:: }
790     sub CBOR::XS::as_float64 ($) { bless [$_[0], 6, undef], CBOR::XS::Tagged:: }
791 root 1.71
792 root 1.76 sub CBOR::XS::as_bool ($) { $_[0] ? $Types::Serialiser::true : $Types::Serialiser::false }
793 root 1.75
794 root 1.77 sub CBOR::XS::as_map ($) {
795     ARRAY:: eq ref $_[0]
796     and $#{ $_[0] } & 1
797     or do { require Carp; Carp::croak ("CBOR::XS::as_map only acepts array references with an even number of elements, found ") };
798    
799     bless [$_[0], 7, undef], CBOR::XS::Tagged::
800     }
801    
802 root 1.7 =head2 OBJECT SERIALISATION
803    
804 root 1.29 This module implements both a CBOR-specific and the generic
805     L<Types::Serialier> object serialisation protocol. The following
806     subsections explain both methods.
807    
808     =head3 ENCODING
809    
810 root 1.7 This module knows two way to serialise a Perl object: The CBOR-specific
811     way, and the generic way.
812    
813 root 1.29 Whenever the encoder encounters a Perl object that it cannot serialise
814 root 1.7 directly (most of them), it will first look up the C<TO_CBOR> method on
815     it.
816    
817     If it has a C<TO_CBOR> method, it will call it with the object as only
818     argument, and expects exactly one return value, which it will then
819     substitute and encode it in the place of the object.
820    
821     Otherwise, it will look up the C<FREEZE> method. If it exists, it will
822     call it with the object as first argument, and the constant string C<CBOR>
823     as the second argument, to distinguish it from other serialisers.
824    
825     The C<FREEZE> method can return any number of values (i.e. zero or
826     more). These will be encoded as CBOR perl object, together with the
827     classname.
828    
829 root 1.29 These methods I<MUST NOT> change the data structure that is being
830     serialised. Failure to comply to this can result in memory corruption -
831     and worse.
832    
833 root 1.7 If an object supports neither C<TO_CBOR> nor C<FREEZE>, encoding will fail
834     with an error.
835    
836 root 1.29 =head3 DECODING
837    
838     Objects encoded via C<TO_CBOR> cannot (normally) be automatically decoded,
839     but objects encoded via C<FREEZE> can be decoded using the following
840     protocol:
841 root 1.7
842     When an encoded CBOR perl object is encountered by the decoder, it will
843     look up the C<THAW> method, by using the stored classname, and will fail
844     if the method cannot be found.
845    
846     After the lookup it will call the C<THAW> method with the stored classname
847     as first argument, the constant string C<CBOR> as second argument, and all
848     values returned by C<FREEZE> as remaining arguments.
849    
850 root 1.29 =head3 EXAMPLES
851 root 1.7
852     Here is an example C<TO_CBOR> method:
853    
854     sub My::Object::TO_CBOR {
855     my ($obj) = @_;
856    
857     ["this is a serialised My::Object object", $obj->{id}]
858     }
859    
860     When a C<My::Object> is encoded to CBOR, it will instead encode a simple
861     array with two members: a string, and the "object id". Decoding this CBOR
862     string will yield a normal perl array reference in place of the object.
863    
864     A more useful and practical example would be a serialisation method for
865     the URI module. CBOR has a custom tag value for URIs, namely 32:
866    
867     sub URI::TO_CBOR {
868     my ($self) = @_;
869     my $uri = "$self"; # stringify uri
870     utf8::upgrade $uri; # make sure it will be encoded as UTF-8 string
871 root 1.28 CBOR::XS::tag 32, "$_[0]"
872 root 1.7 }
873    
874     This will encode URIs as a UTF-8 string with tag 32, which indicates an
875     URI.
876    
877     Decoding such an URI will not (currently) give you an URI object, but
878     instead a CBOR::XS::Tagged object with tag number 32 and the string -
879     exactly what was returned by C<TO_CBOR>.
880    
881     To serialise an object so it can automatically be deserialised, you need
882     to use C<FREEZE> and C<THAW>. To take the URI module as example, this
883     would be a possible implementation:
884    
885     sub URI::FREEZE {
886     my ($self, $serialiser) = @_;
887     "$self" # encode url string
888     }
889    
890     sub URI::THAW {
891     my ($class, $serialiser, $uri) = @_;
892     $class->new ($uri)
893     }
894    
895     Unlike C<TO_CBOR>, multiple values can be returned by C<FREEZE>. For
896     example, a C<FREEZE> method that returns "type", "id" and "variant" values
897     would cause an invocation of C<THAW> with 5 arguments:
898    
899     sub My::Object::FREEZE {
900     my ($self, $serialiser) = @_;
901    
902     ($self->{type}, $self->{id}, $self->{variant})
903     }
904    
905     sub My::Object::THAW {
906     my ($class, $serialiser, $type, $id, $variant) = @_;
907    
908     $class-<new (type => $type, id => $id, variant => $variant)
909     }
910    
911 root 1.1
912 root 1.7 =head1 MAGIC HEADER
913 root 1.3
914     There is no way to distinguish CBOR from other formats
915     programmatically. To make it easier to distinguish CBOR from other
916     formats, the CBOR specification has a special "magic string" that can be
917 root 1.18 prepended to any CBOR string without changing its meaning.
918 root 1.3
919     This string is available as C<$CBOR::XS::MAGIC>. This module does not
920 root 1.18 prepend this string to the CBOR data it generates, but it will ignore it
921 root 1.3 if present, so users can prepend this string as a "file type" indicator as
922     required.
923    
924    
925 root 1.12 =head1 THE CBOR::XS::Tagged CLASS
926    
927     CBOR has the concept of tagged values - any CBOR value can be tagged with
928     a numeric 64 bit number, which are centrally administered.
929    
930     C<CBOR::XS> handles a few tags internally when en- or decoding. You can
931     also create tags yourself by encoding C<CBOR::XS::Tagged> objects, and the
932     decoder will create C<CBOR::XS::Tagged> objects itself when it hits an
933     unknown tag.
934    
935     These objects are simply blessed array references - the first member of
936     the array being the numerical tag, the second being the value.
937    
938     You can interact with C<CBOR::XS::Tagged> objects in the following ways:
939    
940     =over 4
941    
942     =item $tagged = CBOR::XS::tag $tag, $value
943    
944     This function(!) creates a new C<CBOR::XS::Tagged> object using the given
945     C<$tag> (0..2**64-1) to tag the given C<$value> (which can be any Perl
946     value that can be encoded in CBOR, including serialisable Perl objects and
947     C<CBOR::XS::Tagged> objects).
948    
949     =item $tagged->[0]
950    
951     =item $tagged->[0] = $new_tag
952    
953     =item $tag = $tagged->tag
954    
955     =item $new_tag = $tagged->tag ($new_tag)
956    
957     Access/mutate the tag.
958    
959     =item $tagged->[1]
960    
961     =item $tagged->[1] = $new_value
962    
963     =item $value = $tagged->value
964    
965     =item $new_value = $tagged->value ($new_value)
966    
967     Access/mutate the tagged value.
968    
969     =back
970    
971     =cut
972    
973     sub tag($$) {
974     bless [@_], CBOR::XS::Tagged::;
975     }
976    
977     sub CBOR::XS::Tagged::tag {
978     $_[0][0] = $_[1] if $#_;
979     $_[0][0]
980     }
981    
982     sub CBOR::XS::Tagged::value {
983     $_[0][1] = $_[1] if $#_;
984     $_[0][1]
985     }
986    
987 root 1.13 =head2 EXAMPLES
988    
989     Here are some examples of C<CBOR::XS::Tagged> uses to tag objects.
990    
991     You can look up CBOR tag value and emanings in the IANA registry at
992     L<http://www.iana.org/assignments/cbor-tags/cbor-tags.xhtml>.
993    
994     Prepend a magic header (C<$CBOR::XS::MAGIC>):
995    
996     my $cbor = encode_cbor CBOR::XS::tag 55799, $value;
997     # same as:
998     my $cbor = $CBOR::XS::MAGIC . encode_cbor $value;
999    
1000     Serialise some URIs and a regex in an array:
1001    
1002     my $cbor = encode_cbor [
1003     (CBOR::XS::tag 32, "http://www.nethype.de/"),
1004     (CBOR::XS::tag 32, "http://software.schmorp.de/"),
1005     (CBOR::XS::tag 35, "^[Pp][Ee][Rr][lL]\$"),
1006     ];
1007    
1008     Wrap CBOR data in CBOR:
1009    
1010     my $cbor_cbor = encode_cbor
1011     CBOR::XS::tag 24,
1012     encode_cbor [1, 2, 3];
1013    
1014 root 1.19 =head1 TAG HANDLING AND EXTENSIONS
1015    
1016 root 1.22 This section describes how this module handles specific tagged values
1017     and extensions. If a tag is not mentioned here and no additional filters
1018     are provided for it, then the default handling applies (creating a
1019     CBOR::XS::Tagged object on decoding, and only encoding the tag when
1020     explicitly requested).
1021 root 1.19
1022 root 1.23 Tags not handled specifically are currently converted into a
1023     L<CBOR::XS::Tagged> object, which is simply a blessed array reference
1024     consisting of the numeric tag value followed by the (decoded) CBOR value.
1025    
1026 root 1.19 Future versions of this module reserve the right to special case
1027 root 1.22 additional tags (such as base64url).
1028    
1029     =head2 ENFORCED TAGS
1030    
1031     These tags are always handled when decoding, and their handling cannot be
1032 root 1.51 overridden by the user.
1033 root 1.19
1034     =over 4
1035    
1036 root 1.26 =item 26 (perl-object, L<http://cbor.schmorp.de/perl-object>)
1037 root 1.19
1038 root 1.23 These tags are automatically created (and decoded) for serialisable
1039     objects using the C<FREEZE/THAW> methods (the L<Types::Serialier> object
1040     serialisation protocol). See L<OBJECT SERIALISATION> for details.
1041 root 1.19
1042 root 1.45 =item 28, 29 (shareable, sharedref, L<http://cbor.schmorp.de/value-sharing>)
1043 root 1.19
1044 root 1.31 These tags are automatically decoded when encountered (and they do not
1045     result in a cyclic data structure, see C<allow_cycles>), resulting in
1046 root 1.19 shared values in the decoded object. They are only encoded, however, when
1047 root 1.31 C<allow_sharing> is enabled.
1048    
1049     Not all shared values can be successfully decoded: values that reference
1050     themselves will I<currently> decode as C<undef> (this is not the same
1051     as a reference pointing to itself, which will be represented as a value
1052     that contains an indirect reference to itself - these will be decoded
1053     properly).
1054    
1055     Note that considerably more shared value data structures can be decoded
1056     than will be encoded - currently, only values pointed to by references
1057     will be shared, others will not. While non-reference shared values can be
1058     generated in Perl with some effort, they were considered too unimportant
1059     to be supported in the encoder. The decoder, however, will decode these
1060     values as shared values.
1061 root 1.19
1062 root 1.45 =item 256, 25 (stringref-namespace, stringref, L<http://cbor.schmorp.de/stringref>)
1063 root 1.21
1064     These tags are automatically decoded when encountered. They are only
1065 root 1.25 encoded, however, when C<pack_strings> is enabled.
1066 root 1.21
1067 root 1.19 =item 22098 (indirection, L<http://cbor.schmorp.de/indirection>)
1068    
1069     This tag is automatically generated when a reference are encountered (with
1070 root 1.51 the exception of hash and array references). It is converted to a reference
1071 root 1.19 when decoding.
1072    
1073     =item 55799 (self-describe CBOR, RFC 7049)
1074    
1075     This value is not generated on encoding (unless explicitly requested by
1076     the user), and is simply ignored when decoding.
1077    
1078     =back
1079    
1080 root 1.24 =head2 NON-ENFORCED TAGS
1081 root 1.22
1082     These tags have default filters provided when decoding. Their handling can
1083 root 1.51 be overridden by changing the C<%CBOR::XS::FILTER> entry for the tag, or by
1084 root 1.24 providing a custom C<filter> callback when decoding.
1085 root 1.22
1086     When they result in decoding into a specific Perl class, the module
1087     usually provides a corresponding C<TO_CBOR> method as well.
1088    
1089     When any of these need to load additional modules that are not part of the
1090     perl core distribution (e.g. L<URI>), it is (currently) up to the user to
1091     provide these modules. The decoding usually fails with an exception if the
1092     required module cannot be loaded.
1093    
1094     =over 4
1095    
1096 root 1.35 =item 0, 1 (date/time string, seconds since the epoch)
1097    
1098     These tags are decoded into L<Time::Piece> objects. The corresponding
1099     C<Time::Piece::TO_CBOR> method always encodes into tag 1 values currently.
1100    
1101     The L<Time::Piece> API is generally surprisingly bad, and fractional
1102     seconds are only accidentally kept intact, so watch out. On the plus side,
1103     the module comes with perl since 5.10, which has to count for something.
1104    
1105 root 1.22 =item 2, 3 (positive/negative bignum)
1106    
1107     These tags are decoded into L<Math::BigInt> objects. The corresponding
1108     C<Math::BigInt::TO_CBOR> method encodes "small" bigints into normal CBOR
1109     integers, and others into positive/negative CBOR bignums.
1110    
1111 root 1.55 =item 4, 5, 264, 265 (decimal fraction/bigfloat)
1112 root 1.22
1113     Both decimal fractions and bigfloats are decoded into L<Math::BigFloat>
1114     objects. The corresponding C<Math::BigFloat::TO_CBOR> method I<always>
1115 root 1.55 encodes into a decimal fraction (either tag 4 or 264).
1116 root 1.22
1117 root 1.55 NaN and infinities are not encoded properly, as they cannot be represented
1118     in CBOR.
1119 root 1.22
1120 root 1.55 See L<BIGNUM SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS> for more info.
1121 root 1.22
1122 root 1.58 =item 30 (rational numbers)
1123    
1124     These tags are decoded into L<Math::BigRat> objects. The corresponding
1125     C<Math::BigRat::TO_CBOR> method encodes rational numbers with denominator
1126     C<1> via their numerator only, i.e., they become normal integers or
1127     C<bignums>.
1128    
1129     See L<BIGNUM SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS> for more info.
1130    
1131 root 1.22 =item 21, 22, 23 (expected later JSON conversion)
1132    
1133     CBOR::XS is not a CBOR-to-JSON converter, and will simply ignore these
1134     tags.
1135    
1136     =item 32 (URI)
1137    
1138     These objects decode into L<URI> objects. The corresponding
1139     C<URI::TO_CBOR> method again results in a CBOR URI value.
1140    
1141     =back
1142    
1143     =cut
1144    
1145 root 1.7 =head1 CBOR and JSON
1146 root 1.1
1147 root 1.4 CBOR is supposed to implement a superset of the JSON data model, and is,
1148     with some coercion, able to represent all JSON texts (something that other
1149     "binary JSON" formats such as BSON generally do not support).
1150    
1151     CBOR implements some extra hints and support for JSON interoperability,
1152     and the spec offers further guidance for conversion between CBOR and
1153     JSON. None of this is currently implemented in CBOR, and the guidelines
1154     in the spec do not result in correct round-tripping of data. If JSON
1155     interoperability is improved in the future, then the goal will be to
1156     ensure that decoded JSON data will round-trip encoding and decoding to
1157     CBOR intact.
1158 root 1.1
1159    
1160     =head1 SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS
1161    
1162 root 1.65 Tl;dr... if you want to decode or encode CBOR from untrusted sources, you
1163 root 1.69 should start with a coder object created via C<new_safe> (which implements
1164     the mitigations explained below):
1165 root 1.65
1166     my $coder = CBOR::XS->new_safe;
1167 root 1.1
1168 root 1.65 my $data = $coder->decode ($cbor_text);
1169     my $cbor = $coder->encode ($data);
1170    
1171     Longer version: When you are using CBOR in a protocol, talking to
1172     untrusted potentially hostile creatures requires some thought:
1173    
1174     =over 4
1175    
1176     =item Security of the CBOR decoder itself
1177    
1178     First and foremost, your CBOR decoder should be secure, that is, should
1179     not have any buffer overflows or similar bugs that could potentially be
1180     exploited. Obviously, this module should ensure that and I am trying hard
1181     on making that true, but you never know.
1182    
1183     =item CBOR::XS can invoke almost arbitrary callbacks during decoding
1184    
1185     CBOR::XS supports object serialisation - decoding CBOR can cause calls
1186     to I<any> C<THAW> method in I<any> package that exists in your process
1187     (that is, CBOR::XS will not try to load modules, but any existing C<THAW>
1188     method or function can be called, so they all have to be secure).
1189    
1190     Less obviously, it will also invoke C<TO_CBOR> and C<FREEZE> methods -
1191     even if all your C<THAW> methods are secure, encoding data structures from
1192     untrusted sources can invoke those and trigger bugs in those.
1193    
1194     So, if you are not sure about the security of all the modules you
1195     have loaded (you shouldn't), you should disable this part using
1196 root 1.69 C<forbid_objects> or using C<new_safe>.
1197 root 1.65
1198     =item CBOR can be extended with tags that call library code
1199    
1200     CBOR can be extended with tags, and C<CBOR::XS> has a registry of
1201     conversion functions for many existing tags that can be extended via
1202     third-party modules (see the C<filter> method).
1203    
1204     If you don't trust these, you should configure the "safe" filter function,
1205 root 1.69 C<CBOR::XS::safe_filter> (C<new_safe> does this), which by default only
1206     includes conversion functions that are considered "safe" by the author
1207     (but again, they can be extended by third party modules).
1208 root 1.65
1209     Depending on your level of paranoia, you can use the "safe" filter:
1210    
1211     $cbor->filter (\&CBOR::XS::safe_filter);
1212    
1213     ... your own filter...
1214    
1215     $cbor->filter (sub { ... do your stuffs here ... });
1216    
1217     ... or even no filter at all, disabling all tag decoding:
1218    
1219     $cbor->filter (sub { });
1220    
1221     This is never a problem for encoding, as the tag mechanism only exists in
1222     CBOR texts.
1223    
1224     =item Resource-starving attacks: object memory usage
1225    
1226     You need to avoid resource-starving attacks. That means you should limit
1227     the size of CBOR data you accept, or make sure then when your resources
1228     run out, that's just fine (e.g. by using a separate process that can
1229     crash safely). The size of a CBOR string in octets is usually a good
1230 root 1.1 indication of the size of the resources required to decode it into a Perl
1231 root 1.65 structure. While CBOR::XS can check the size of the CBOR text (using
1232 root 1.69 C<max_size> - done by C<new_safe>), it might be too late when you already
1233     have it in memory, so you might want to check the size before you accept
1234     the string.
1235 root 1.65
1236     As for encoding, it is possible to construct data structures that are
1237     relatively small but result in large CBOR texts (for example by having an
1238     array full of references to the same big data structure, which will all be
1239     deep-cloned during encoding by default). This is rarely an actual issue
1240     (and the worst case is still just running out of memory), but you can
1241     reduce this risk by using C<allow_sharing>.
1242    
1243     =item Resource-starving attacks: stack overflows
1244    
1245     CBOR::XS recurses using the C stack when decoding objects and arrays. The
1246     C stack is a limited resource: for instance, on my amd64 machine with 8MB
1247     of stack size I can decode around 180k nested arrays but only 14k nested
1248     CBOR objects (due to perl itself recursing deeply on croak to free the
1249     temporary). If that is exceeded, the program crashes. To be conservative,
1250     the default nesting limit is set to 512. If your process has a smaller
1251     stack, you should adjust this setting accordingly with the C<max_depth>
1252     method.
1253    
1254     =item Resource-starving attacks: CPU en-/decoding complexity
1255    
1256     CBOR::XS will use the L<Math::BigInt>, L<Math::BigFloat> and
1257 root 1.69 L<Math::BigRat> libraries to represent encode/decode bignums. These can be
1258     very slow (as in, centuries of CPU time) and can even crash your program
1259     (and are generally not very trustworthy). See the next section on bignum
1260     security for details.
1261 root 1.65
1262     =item Data breaches: leaking information in error messages
1263    
1264     CBOR::XS might leak contents of your Perl data structures in its error
1265     messages, so when you serialise sensitive information you might want to
1266     make sure that exceptions thrown by CBOR::XS will not end up in front of
1267     untrusted eyes.
1268    
1269     =item Something else...
1270 root 1.1
1271     Something else could bomb you, too, that I forgot to think of. In that
1272     case, you get to keep the pieces. I am always open for hints, though...
1273    
1274 root 1.65 =back
1275 root 1.1
1276 root 1.55
1277     =head1 BIGNUM SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS
1278    
1279     CBOR::XS provides a C<TO_CBOR> method for both L<Math::BigInt> and
1280     L<Math::BigFloat> that tries to encode the number in the simplest possible
1281     way, that is, either a CBOR integer, a CBOR bigint/decimal fraction (tag
1282 root 1.58 4) or an arbitrary-exponent decimal fraction (tag 264). Rational numbers
1283     (L<Math::BigRat>, tag 30) can also contain bignums as members.
1284 root 1.55
1285 root 1.58 CBOR::XS will also understand base-2 bigfloat or arbitrary-exponent
1286     bigfloats (tags 5 and 265), but it will never generate these on its own.
1287 root 1.55
1288     Using the built-in L<Math::BigInt::Calc> support, encoding and decoding
1289     decimal fractions is generally fast. Decoding bigints can be slow for very
1290 root 1.58 big numbers (tens of thousands of digits, something that could potentially
1291     be caught by limiting the size of CBOR texts), and decoding bigfloats or
1292     arbitrary-exponent bigfloats can be I<extremely> slow (minutes, decades)
1293     for large exponents (roughly 40 bit and longer).
1294 root 1.55
1295     Additionally, L<Math::BigInt> can take advantage of other bignum
1296 root 1.58 libraries, such as L<Math::GMP>, which cannot handle big floats with large
1297     exponents, and might simply abort or crash your program, due to their code
1298     quality.
1299 root 1.55
1300     This can be a concern if you want to parse untrusted CBOR. If it is, you
1301 root 1.58 might want to disable decoding of tag 2 (bigint) and 3 (negative bigint)
1302     types. You should also disable types 5 and 265, as these can be slow even
1303     without bigints.
1304    
1305     Disabling bigints will also partially or fully disable types that rely on
1306     them, e.g. rational numbers that use bignums.
1307 root 1.55
1308    
1309 root 1.1 =head1 CBOR IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
1310    
1311     This section contains some random implementation notes. They do not
1312     describe guaranteed behaviour, but merely behaviour as-is implemented
1313     right now.
1314    
1315     64 bit integers are only properly decoded when Perl was built with 64 bit
1316     support.
1317    
1318     Strings and arrays are encoded with a definite length. Hashes as well,
1319     unless they are tied (or otherwise magical).
1320    
1321     Only the double data type is supported for NV data types - when Perl uses
1322     long double to represent floating point values, they might not be encoded
1323     properly. Half precision types are accepted, but not encoded.
1324    
1325     Strict mode and canonical mode are not implemented.
1326    
1327    
1328 root 1.30 =head1 LIMITATIONS ON PERLS WITHOUT 64-BIT INTEGER SUPPORT
1329    
1330     On perls that were built without 64 bit integer support (these are rare
1331 root 1.43 nowadays, even on 32 bit architectures, as all major Perl distributions
1332     are built with 64 bit integer support), support for any kind of 64 bit
1333 root 1.71 value in CBOR is very limited - most likely, these 64 bit values will
1334 root 1.30 be truncated, corrupted, or otherwise not decoded correctly. This also
1335 root 1.71 includes string, float, array and map sizes that are stored as 64 bit
1336     integers.
1337 root 1.30
1338    
1339 root 1.1 =head1 THREADS
1340    
1341     This module is I<not> guaranteed to be thread safe and there are no
1342     plans to change this until Perl gets thread support (as opposed to the
1343     horribly slow so-called "threads" which are simply slow and bloated
1344     process simulations - use fork, it's I<much> faster, cheaper, better).
1345    
1346     (It might actually work, but you have been warned).
1347    
1348    
1349     =head1 BUGS
1350    
1351     While the goal of this module is to be correct, that unfortunately does
1352     not mean it's bug-free, only that I think its design is bug-free. If you
1353     keep reporting bugs they will be fixed swiftly, though.
1354    
1355     Please refrain from using rt.cpan.org or any other bug reporting
1356     service. I put the contact address into my modules for a reason.
1357    
1358     =cut
1359    
1360 root 1.65 # clumsy and slow hv_store-in-hash helper function
1361 root 1.64 sub _hv_store {
1362     $_[0]{$_[1]} = $_[2];
1363     }
1364    
1365 root 1.22 our %FILTER = (
1366 root 1.35 0 => sub { # rfc4287 datetime, utf-8
1367     require Time::Piece;
1368     # Time::Piece::Strptime uses the "incredibly flexible date parsing routine"
1369     # from FreeBSD, which can't parse ISO 8601, RFC3339, RFC4287 or much of anything
1370     # else either. Whats incredibe over standard strptime totally escapes me.
1371     # doesn't do fractional times, either. sigh.
1372 root 1.36 # In fact, it's all a lie, it uses whatever strptime it wants, and of course,
1373 root 1.47 # they are all incompatible. The openbsd one simply ignores %z (but according to the
1374 root 1.37 # docs, it would be much more incredibly flexible indeed. If it worked, that is.).
1375 root 1.35 scalar eval {
1376     my $s = $_[1];
1377    
1378     $s =~ s/Z$/+00:00/;
1379 root 1.36 $s =~ s/(\.[0-9]+)?([+-][0-9][0-9]):([0-9][0-9])$//
1380 root 1.35 or die;
1381    
1382 root 1.36 my $b = $1 - ($2 * 60 + $3) * 60; # fractional part + offset. hopefully
1383     my $d = Time::Piece->strptime ($s, "%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S");
1384 root 1.35
1385 root 1.36 Time::Piece::gmtime ($d->epoch + $b)
1386 root 1.35 } || die "corrupted CBOR date/time string ($_[0])";
1387     },
1388    
1389     1 => sub { # seconds since the epoch, possibly fractional
1390     require Time::Piece;
1391     scalar Time::Piece::gmtime (pop)
1392     },
1393 root 1.22
1394     2 => sub { # pos bigint
1395     require Math::BigInt;
1396 root 1.57 Math::BigInt->new ("0x" . unpack "H*", pop)
1397 root 1.22 },
1398    
1399     3 => sub { # neg bigint
1400     require Math::BigInt;
1401 root 1.57 -Math::BigInt->new ("0x" . unpack "H*", pop)
1402 root 1.22 },
1403    
1404     4 => sub { # decimal fraction, array
1405     require Math::BigFloat;
1406     Math::BigFloat->new ($_[1][1] . "E" . $_[1][0])
1407     },
1408    
1409 root 1.58 264 => sub { # decimal fraction with arbitrary exponent
1410     require Math::BigFloat;
1411     Math::BigFloat->new ($_[1][1] . "E" . $_[1][0])
1412     },
1413    
1414 root 1.22 5 => sub { # bigfloat, array
1415     require Math::BigFloat;
1416 root 1.50 scalar Math::BigFloat->new ($_[1][1]) * Math::BigFloat->new (2)->bpow ($_[1][0])
1417 root 1.22 },
1418    
1419 root 1.58 265 => sub { # bigfloat with arbitrary exponent
1420     require Math::BigFloat;
1421     scalar Math::BigFloat->new ($_[1][1]) * Math::BigFloat->new (2)->bpow ($_[1][0])
1422     },
1423    
1424     30 => sub { # rational number
1425     require Math::BigRat;
1426     Math::BigRat->new ("$_[1][0]/$_[1][1]") # separate parameters only work in recent versons
1427     },
1428    
1429 root 1.22 21 => sub { pop }, # expected conversion to base64url encoding
1430     22 => sub { pop }, # expected conversion to base64 encoding
1431     23 => sub { pop }, # expected conversion to base16 encoding
1432    
1433     # 24 # embedded cbor, byte string
1434    
1435     32 => sub {
1436     require URI;
1437     URI->new (pop)
1438     },
1439    
1440     # 33 # base64url rfc4648, utf-8
1441     # 34 # base64 rfc46484, utf-8
1442     # 35 # regex pcre/ecma262, utf-8
1443     # 36 # mime message rfc2045, utf-8
1444     );
1445    
1446 root 1.65 sub default_filter {
1447 root 1.22 &{ $FILTER{$_[0]} or return }
1448     }
1449    
1450 root 1.65 our %SAFE_FILTER = map { $_ => $FILTER{$_} } 0, 1, 21, 22, 23, 32;
1451    
1452     sub safe_filter {
1453     &{ $SAFE_FILTER{$_[0]} or return }
1454     }
1455    
1456 root 1.22 sub URI::TO_CBOR {
1457     my $uri = $_[0]->as_string;
1458     utf8::upgrade $uri;
1459 root 1.35 tag 32, $uri
1460 root 1.22 }
1461    
1462     sub Math::BigInt::TO_CBOR {
1463 root 1.55 if (-2147483648 <= $_[0] && $_[0] <= 2147483647) {
1464 root 1.22 $_[0]->numify
1465     } else {
1466     my $hex = substr $_[0]->as_hex, 2;
1467     $hex = "0$hex" if 1 & length $hex; # sigh
1468 root 1.35 tag $_[0] >= 0 ? 2 : 3, pack "H*", $hex
1469 root 1.22 }
1470     }
1471    
1472     sub Math::BigFloat::TO_CBOR {
1473     my ($m, $e) = $_[0]->parts;
1474 root 1.55
1475     -9223372036854775808 <= $e && $e <= 18446744073709551615
1476     ? tag 4, [$e->numify, $m]
1477     : tag 264, [$e, $m]
1478 root 1.35 }
1479    
1480 root 1.58 sub Math::BigRat::TO_CBOR {
1481     my ($n, $d) = $_[0]->parts;
1482    
1483 root 1.60 # older versions of BigRat need *1, as they not always return numbers
1484 root 1.59
1485     $d*1 == 1
1486     ? $n*1
1487     : tag 30, [$n*1, $d*1]
1488 root 1.58 }
1489    
1490 root 1.35 sub Time::Piece::TO_CBOR {
1491 root 1.40 tag 1, 0 + $_[0]->epoch
1492 root 1.22 }
1493    
1494 root 1.1 XSLoader::load "CBOR::XS", $VERSION;
1495    
1496     =head1 SEE ALSO
1497    
1498     The L<JSON> and L<JSON::XS> modules that do similar, but human-readable,
1499     serialisation.
1500    
1501 root 1.6 The L<Types::Serialiser> module provides the data model for true, false
1502     and error values.
1503    
1504 root 1.1 =head1 AUTHOR
1505    
1506     Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>
1507     http://home.schmorp.de/
1508    
1509     =cut
1510    
1511 root 1.6 1
1512