ViewVC Help
View File | Revision Log | Show Annotations | Download File
/cvs/CBOR-XS/XS.pm
Revision: 1.81
Committed: Fri Dec 11 06:10:26 2020 UTC (3 years, 5 months ago) by root
Branch: MAIN
Changes since 1.80: +3 -3 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 1.78 our $VERSION = 1.83;
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     $x *= 1; # same thing, the choice is yours.
692    
693     You can not currently force the type in other, less obscure, ways. Tell me
694     if you need this capability (but don't forget to explain why it's needed
695     :).
696    
697 root 1.4 Perl values that seem to be integers generally use the shortest possible
698     representation. Floating-point values will use either the IEEE single
699     format if possible without loss of precision, otherwise the IEEE double
700     format will be used. Perls that use formats other than IEEE double to
701     represent numerical values are supported, but might suffer loss of
702     precision.
703 root 1.1
704     =back
705    
706 root 1.71 =head2 TYPE CASTS
707    
708     B<EXPERIMENTAL>: As an experimental extension, C<CBOR::XS> allows you to
709 root 1.81 force specific CBOR types to be used when encoding. That allows you to
710 root 1.71 encode types not normally accessible (e.g. half floats) as well as force
711     string types even when C<text_strings> is in effect.
712    
713     Type forcing is done by calling a special "cast" function which keeps a
714     copy of the value and returns a new value that can be handed over to any
715     CBOR encoder function.
716    
717 root 1.79 The following casts are currently available (all of which are unary
718     operators, that is, have a prototype of C<$>):
719 root 1.71
720     =over
721    
722 root 1.72 =item CBOR::XS::as_int $value
723    
724     Forces the value to be encoded as some form of (basic, not bignum) integer
725     type.
726    
727 root 1.71 =item CBOR::XS::as_text $value
728    
729     Forces the value to be encoded as (UTF-8) text values.
730    
731     =item CBOR::XS::as_bytes $value
732    
733     Forces the value to be encoded as a (binary) string value.
734    
735 root 1.77 Example: encode a perl string as binary even though C<text_strings> is in
736     effect.
737    
738     CBOR::XS->new->text_strings->encode ([4, "text", CBOR::XS::bytes "bytevalue"]);
739    
740 root 1.75 =item CBOR::XS::as_bool $value
741    
742     Converts a Perl boolean (which can be any kind of scalar) into a CBOR
743 root 1.76 boolean. Strictly the same, but shorter to write, than:
744 root 1.75
745     $value ? Types::Serialiser::true : Types::Serialiser::false
746    
747 root 1.71 =item CBOR::XS::as_float16 $value
748    
749     Forces half-float (IEEE 754 binary16) encoding of the given value.
750    
751     =item CBOR::XS::as_float32 $value
752    
753     Forces single-float (IEEE 754 binary32) encoding of the given value.
754    
755     =item CBOR::XS::as_float64 $value
756    
757     Forces double-float (IEEE 754 binary64) encoding of the given value.
758    
759 root 1.77 =item CBOR::XS::as_cbor $cbor_text
760 root 1.71
761 root 1.81 Not a type cast per-se, this type cast forces the argument to be encoded
762 root 1.71 as-is. This can be used to embed pre-encoded CBOR data.
763    
764     Note that no checking on the validity of the C<$cbor_text> is done - it's
765     the callers responsibility to correctly encode values.
766    
767 root 1.77 =item CBOR::XS::as_map [key => value...]
768    
769     Treat the array reference as key value pairs and output a CBOR map. This
770     allows you to generate CBOR maps with arbitrary key types (or, if you
771 root 1.80 don't care about semantics, duplicate keys or pairs in a custom order),
772 root 1.77 which is otherwise hard to do with Perl.
773    
774     The single argument must be an array reference with an even number of
775     elements.
776    
777 root 1.80 Note that only the reference to the array is copied, the array itself is
778 root 1.81 not. Modifications done to the array before calling an encoding function
779 root 1.80 will be reflected in the encoded output.
780    
781 root 1.77 Example: encode a CBOR map with a string and an integer as keys.
782 root 1.71
783 root 1.77 encode_cbor CBOR::XS::as_map [string => "value", 5 => "value"]
784 root 1.71
785 root 1.77 =back
786 root 1.71
787     =cut
788    
789 root 1.74 sub CBOR::XS::as_cbor ($) { bless [$_[0], 0, undef], CBOR::XS::Tagged:: }
790     sub CBOR::XS::as_int ($) { bless [$_[0], 1, undef], CBOR::XS::Tagged:: }
791 root 1.72 sub CBOR::XS::as_bytes ($) { bless [$_[0], 2, undef], CBOR::XS::Tagged:: }
792     sub CBOR::XS::as_text ($) { bless [$_[0], 3, undef], CBOR::XS::Tagged:: }
793     sub CBOR::XS::as_float16 ($) { bless [$_[0], 4, undef], CBOR::XS::Tagged:: }
794     sub CBOR::XS::as_float32 ($) { bless [$_[0], 5, undef], CBOR::XS::Tagged:: }
795     sub CBOR::XS::as_float64 ($) { bless [$_[0], 6, undef], CBOR::XS::Tagged:: }
796 root 1.71
797 root 1.76 sub CBOR::XS::as_bool ($) { $_[0] ? $Types::Serialiser::true : $Types::Serialiser::false }
798 root 1.75
799 root 1.77 sub CBOR::XS::as_map ($) {
800     ARRAY:: eq ref $_[0]
801     and $#{ $_[0] } & 1
802 root 1.78 or do { require Carp; Carp::croak ("CBOR::XS::as_map only acepts array references with an even number of elements, caught") };
803 root 1.77
804     bless [$_[0], 7, undef], CBOR::XS::Tagged::
805     }
806    
807 root 1.7 =head2 OBJECT SERIALISATION
808    
809 root 1.29 This module implements both a CBOR-specific and the generic
810     L<Types::Serialier> object serialisation protocol. The following
811     subsections explain both methods.
812    
813     =head3 ENCODING
814    
815 root 1.7 This module knows two way to serialise a Perl object: The CBOR-specific
816     way, and the generic way.
817    
818 root 1.29 Whenever the encoder encounters a Perl object that it cannot serialise
819 root 1.7 directly (most of them), it will first look up the C<TO_CBOR> method on
820     it.
821    
822     If it has a C<TO_CBOR> method, it will call it with the object as only
823     argument, and expects exactly one return value, which it will then
824     substitute and encode it in the place of the object.
825    
826     Otherwise, it will look up the C<FREEZE> method. If it exists, it will
827     call it with the object as first argument, and the constant string C<CBOR>
828     as the second argument, to distinguish it from other serialisers.
829    
830     The C<FREEZE> method can return any number of values (i.e. zero or
831     more). These will be encoded as CBOR perl object, together with the
832     classname.
833    
834 root 1.29 These methods I<MUST NOT> change the data structure that is being
835     serialised. Failure to comply to this can result in memory corruption -
836     and worse.
837    
838 root 1.7 If an object supports neither C<TO_CBOR> nor C<FREEZE>, encoding will fail
839     with an error.
840    
841 root 1.29 =head3 DECODING
842    
843     Objects encoded via C<TO_CBOR> cannot (normally) be automatically decoded,
844     but objects encoded via C<FREEZE> can be decoded using the following
845     protocol:
846 root 1.7
847     When an encoded CBOR perl object is encountered by the decoder, it will
848     look up the C<THAW> method, by using the stored classname, and will fail
849     if the method cannot be found.
850    
851     After the lookup it will call the C<THAW> method with the stored classname
852     as first argument, the constant string C<CBOR> as second argument, and all
853     values returned by C<FREEZE> as remaining arguments.
854    
855 root 1.29 =head3 EXAMPLES
856 root 1.7
857     Here is an example C<TO_CBOR> method:
858    
859     sub My::Object::TO_CBOR {
860     my ($obj) = @_;
861    
862     ["this is a serialised My::Object object", $obj->{id}]
863     }
864    
865     When a C<My::Object> is encoded to CBOR, it will instead encode a simple
866     array with two members: a string, and the "object id". Decoding this CBOR
867     string will yield a normal perl array reference in place of the object.
868    
869     A more useful and practical example would be a serialisation method for
870     the URI module. CBOR has a custom tag value for URIs, namely 32:
871    
872     sub URI::TO_CBOR {
873     my ($self) = @_;
874     my $uri = "$self"; # stringify uri
875     utf8::upgrade $uri; # make sure it will be encoded as UTF-8 string
876 root 1.28 CBOR::XS::tag 32, "$_[0]"
877 root 1.7 }
878    
879     This will encode URIs as a UTF-8 string with tag 32, which indicates an
880     URI.
881    
882     Decoding such an URI will not (currently) give you an URI object, but
883     instead a CBOR::XS::Tagged object with tag number 32 and the string -
884     exactly what was returned by C<TO_CBOR>.
885    
886     To serialise an object so it can automatically be deserialised, you need
887     to use C<FREEZE> and C<THAW>. To take the URI module as example, this
888     would be a possible implementation:
889    
890     sub URI::FREEZE {
891     my ($self, $serialiser) = @_;
892     "$self" # encode url string
893     }
894    
895     sub URI::THAW {
896     my ($class, $serialiser, $uri) = @_;
897     $class->new ($uri)
898     }
899    
900     Unlike C<TO_CBOR>, multiple values can be returned by C<FREEZE>. For
901     example, a C<FREEZE> method that returns "type", "id" and "variant" values
902     would cause an invocation of C<THAW> with 5 arguments:
903    
904     sub My::Object::FREEZE {
905     my ($self, $serialiser) = @_;
906    
907     ($self->{type}, $self->{id}, $self->{variant})
908     }
909    
910     sub My::Object::THAW {
911     my ($class, $serialiser, $type, $id, $variant) = @_;
912    
913     $class-<new (type => $type, id => $id, variant => $variant)
914     }
915    
916 root 1.1
917 root 1.7 =head1 MAGIC HEADER
918 root 1.3
919     There is no way to distinguish CBOR from other formats
920     programmatically. To make it easier to distinguish CBOR from other
921     formats, the CBOR specification has a special "magic string" that can be
922 root 1.18 prepended to any CBOR string without changing its meaning.
923 root 1.3
924     This string is available as C<$CBOR::XS::MAGIC>. This module does not
925 root 1.18 prepend this string to the CBOR data it generates, but it will ignore it
926 root 1.3 if present, so users can prepend this string as a "file type" indicator as
927     required.
928    
929    
930 root 1.12 =head1 THE CBOR::XS::Tagged CLASS
931    
932     CBOR has the concept of tagged values - any CBOR value can be tagged with
933     a numeric 64 bit number, which are centrally administered.
934    
935     C<CBOR::XS> handles a few tags internally when en- or decoding. You can
936     also create tags yourself by encoding C<CBOR::XS::Tagged> objects, and the
937     decoder will create C<CBOR::XS::Tagged> objects itself when it hits an
938     unknown tag.
939    
940     These objects are simply blessed array references - the first member of
941     the array being the numerical tag, the second being the value.
942    
943     You can interact with C<CBOR::XS::Tagged> objects in the following ways:
944    
945     =over 4
946    
947     =item $tagged = CBOR::XS::tag $tag, $value
948    
949     This function(!) creates a new C<CBOR::XS::Tagged> object using the given
950     C<$tag> (0..2**64-1) to tag the given C<$value> (which can be any Perl
951     value that can be encoded in CBOR, including serialisable Perl objects and
952     C<CBOR::XS::Tagged> objects).
953    
954     =item $tagged->[0]
955    
956     =item $tagged->[0] = $new_tag
957    
958     =item $tag = $tagged->tag
959    
960     =item $new_tag = $tagged->tag ($new_tag)
961    
962     Access/mutate the tag.
963    
964     =item $tagged->[1]
965    
966     =item $tagged->[1] = $new_value
967    
968     =item $value = $tagged->value
969    
970     =item $new_value = $tagged->value ($new_value)
971    
972     Access/mutate the tagged value.
973    
974     =back
975    
976     =cut
977    
978     sub tag($$) {
979     bless [@_], CBOR::XS::Tagged::;
980     }
981    
982     sub CBOR::XS::Tagged::tag {
983     $_[0][0] = $_[1] if $#_;
984     $_[0][0]
985     }
986    
987     sub CBOR::XS::Tagged::value {
988     $_[0][1] = $_[1] if $#_;
989     $_[0][1]
990     }
991    
992 root 1.13 =head2 EXAMPLES
993    
994     Here are some examples of C<CBOR::XS::Tagged> uses to tag objects.
995    
996     You can look up CBOR tag value and emanings in the IANA registry at
997     L<http://www.iana.org/assignments/cbor-tags/cbor-tags.xhtml>.
998    
999     Prepend a magic header (C<$CBOR::XS::MAGIC>):
1000    
1001     my $cbor = encode_cbor CBOR::XS::tag 55799, $value;
1002     # same as:
1003     my $cbor = $CBOR::XS::MAGIC . encode_cbor $value;
1004    
1005     Serialise some URIs and a regex in an array:
1006    
1007     my $cbor = encode_cbor [
1008     (CBOR::XS::tag 32, "http://www.nethype.de/"),
1009     (CBOR::XS::tag 32, "http://software.schmorp.de/"),
1010     (CBOR::XS::tag 35, "^[Pp][Ee][Rr][lL]\$"),
1011     ];
1012    
1013     Wrap CBOR data in CBOR:
1014    
1015     my $cbor_cbor = encode_cbor
1016     CBOR::XS::tag 24,
1017     encode_cbor [1, 2, 3];
1018    
1019 root 1.19 =head1 TAG HANDLING AND EXTENSIONS
1020    
1021 root 1.22 This section describes how this module handles specific tagged values
1022     and extensions. If a tag is not mentioned here and no additional filters
1023     are provided for it, then the default handling applies (creating a
1024     CBOR::XS::Tagged object on decoding, and only encoding the tag when
1025     explicitly requested).
1026 root 1.19
1027 root 1.23 Tags not handled specifically are currently converted into a
1028     L<CBOR::XS::Tagged> object, which is simply a blessed array reference
1029     consisting of the numeric tag value followed by the (decoded) CBOR value.
1030    
1031 root 1.19 Future versions of this module reserve the right to special case
1032 root 1.22 additional tags (such as base64url).
1033    
1034     =head2 ENFORCED TAGS
1035    
1036     These tags are always handled when decoding, and their handling cannot be
1037 root 1.51 overridden by the user.
1038 root 1.19
1039     =over 4
1040    
1041 root 1.26 =item 26 (perl-object, L<http://cbor.schmorp.de/perl-object>)
1042 root 1.19
1043 root 1.23 These tags are automatically created (and decoded) for serialisable
1044     objects using the C<FREEZE/THAW> methods (the L<Types::Serialier> object
1045     serialisation protocol). See L<OBJECT SERIALISATION> for details.
1046 root 1.19
1047 root 1.45 =item 28, 29 (shareable, sharedref, L<http://cbor.schmorp.de/value-sharing>)
1048 root 1.19
1049 root 1.31 These tags are automatically decoded when encountered (and they do not
1050     result in a cyclic data structure, see C<allow_cycles>), resulting in
1051 root 1.19 shared values in the decoded object. They are only encoded, however, when
1052 root 1.31 C<allow_sharing> is enabled.
1053    
1054     Not all shared values can be successfully decoded: values that reference
1055     themselves will I<currently> decode as C<undef> (this is not the same
1056     as a reference pointing to itself, which will be represented as a value
1057     that contains an indirect reference to itself - these will be decoded
1058     properly).
1059    
1060     Note that considerably more shared value data structures can be decoded
1061     than will be encoded - currently, only values pointed to by references
1062     will be shared, others will not. While non-reference shared values can be
1063     generated in Perl with some effort, they were considered too unimportant
1064     to be supported in the encoder. The decoder, however, will decode these
1065     values as shared values.
1066 root 1.19
1067 root 1.45 =item 256, 25 (stringref-namespace, stringref, L<http://cbor.schmorp.de/stringref>)
1068 root 1.21
1069     These tags are automatically decoded when encountered. They are only
1070 root 1.25 encoded, however, when C<pack_strings> is enabled.
1071 root 1.21
1072 root 1.19 =item 22098 (indirection, L<http://cbor.schmorp.de/indirection>)
1073    
1074     This tag is automatically generated when a reference are encountered (with
1075 root 1.51 the exception of hash and array references). It is converted to a reference
1076 root 1.19 when decoding.
1077    
1078     =item 55799 (self-describe CBOR, RFC 7049)
1079    
1080     This value is not generated on encoding (unless explicitly requested by
1081     the user), and is simply ignored when decoding.
1082    
1083     =back
1084    
1085 root 1.24 =head2 NON-ENFORCED TAGS
1086 root 1.22
1087     These tags have default filters provided when decoding. Their handling can
1088 root 1.51 be overridden by changing the C<%CBOR::XS::FILTER> entry for the tag, or by
1089 root 1.24 providing a custom C<filter> callback when decoding.
1090 root 1.22
1091     When they result in decoding into a specific Perl class, the module
1092     usually provides a corresponding C<TO_CBOR> method as well.
1093    
1094     When any of these need to load additional modules that are not part of the
1095     perl core distribution (e.g. L<URI>), it is (currently) up to the user to
1096     provide these modules. The decoding usually fails with an exception if the
1097     required module cannot be loaded.
1098    
1099     =over 4
1100    
1101 root 1.35 =item 0, 1 (date/time string, seconds since the epoch)
1102    
1103     These tags are decoded into L<Time::Piece> objects. The corresponding
1104     C<Time::Piece::TO_CBOR> method always encodes into tag 1 values currently.
1105    
1106     The L<Time::Piece> API is generally surprisingly bad, and fractional
1107     seconds are only accidentally kept intact, so watch out. On the plus side,
1108     the module comes with perl since 5.10, which has to count for something.
1109    
1110 root 1.22 =item 2, 3 (positive/negative bignum)
1111    
1112     These tags are decoded into L<Math::BigInt> objects. The corresponding
1113     C<Math::BigInt::TO_CBOR> method encodes "small" bigints into normal CBOR
1114     integers, and others into positive/negative CBOR bignums.
1115    
1116 root 1.55 =item 4, 5, 264, 265 (decimal fraction/bigfloat)
1117 root 1.22
1118     Both decimal fractions and bigfloats are decoded into L<Math::BigFloat>
1119     objects. The corresponding C<Math::BigFloat::TO_CBOR> method I<always>
1120 root 1.55 encodes into a decimal fraction (either tag 4 or 264).
1121 root 1.22
1122 root 1.55 NaN and infinities are not encoded properly, as they cannot be represented
1123     in CBOR.
1124 root 1.22
1125 root 1.55 See L<BIGNUM SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS> for more info.
1126 root 1.22
1127 root 1.58 =item 30 (rational numbers)
1128    
1129     These tags are decoded into L<Math::BigRat> objects. The corresponding
1130     C<Math::BigRat::TO_CBOR> method encodes rational numbers with denominator
1131     C<1> via their numerator only, i.e., they become normal integers or
1132     C<bignums>.
1133    
1134     See L<BIGNUM SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS> for more info.
1135    
1136 root 1.22 =item 21, 22, 23 (expected later JSON conversion)
1137    
1138     CBOR::XS is not a CBOR-to-JSON converter, and will simply ignore these
1139     tags.
1140    
1141     =item 32 (URI)
1142    
1143     These objects decode into L<URI> objects. The corresponding
1144     C<URI::TO_CBOR> method again results in a CBOR URI value.
1145    
1146     =back
1147    
1148     =cut
1149    
1150 root 1.7 =head1 CBOR and JSON
1151 root 1.1
1152 root 1.4 CBOR is supposed to implement a superset of the JSON data model, and is,
1153     with some coercion, able to represent all JSON texts (something that other
1154     "binary JSON" formats such as BSON generally do not support).
1155    
1156     CBOR implements some extra hints and support for JSON interoperability,
1157     and the spec offers further guidance for conversion between CBOR and
1158     JSON. None of this is currently implemented in CBOR, and the guidelines
1159     in the spec do not result in correct round-tripping of data. If JSON
1160     interoperability is improved in the future, then the goal will be to
1161     ensure that decoded JSON data will round-trip encoding and decoding to
1162     CBOR intact.
1163 root 1.1
1164    
1165     =head1 SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS
1166    
1167 root 1.65 Tl;dr... if you want to decode or encode CBOR from untrusted sources, you
1168 root 1.69 should start with a coder object created via C<new_safe> (which implements
1169     the mitigations explained below):
1170 root 1.65
1171     my $coder = CBOR::XS->new_safe;
1172 root 1.1
1173 root 1.65 my $data = $coder->decode ($cbor_text);
1174     my $cbor = $coder->encode ($data);
1175    
1176     Longer version: When you are using CBOR in a protocol, talking to
1177     untrusted potentially hostile creatures requires some thought:
1178    
1179     =over 4
1180    
1181     =item Security of the CBOR decoder itself
1182    
1183     First and foremost, your CBOR decoder should be secure, that is, should
1184     not have any buffer overflows or similar bugs that could potentially be
1185     exploited. Obviously, this module should ensure that and I am trying hard
1186     on making that true, but you never know.
1187    
1188     =item CBOR::XS can invoke almost arbitrary callbacks during decoding
1189    
1190     CBOR::XS supports object serialisation - decoding CBOR can cause calls
1191     to I<any> C<THAW> method in I<any> package that exists in your process
1192     (that is, CBOR::XS will not try to load modules, but any existing C<THAW>
1193     method or function can be called, so they all have to be secure).
1194    
1195     Less obviously, it will also invoke C<TO_CBOR> and C<FREEZE> methods -
1196     even if all your C<THAW> methods are secure, encoding data structures from
1197     untrusted sources can invoke those and trigger bugs in those.
1198    
1199     So, if you are not sure about the security of all the modules you
1200     have loaded (you shouldn't), you should disable this part using
1201 root 1.69 C<forbid_objects> or using C<new_safe>.
1202 root 1.65
1203     =item CBOR can be extended with tags that call library code
1204    
1205     CBOR can be extended with tags, and C<CBOR::XS> has a registry of
1206     conversion functions for many existing tags that can be extended via
1207     third-party modules (see the C<filter> method).
1208    
1209     If you don't trust these, you should configure the "safe" filter function,
1210 root 1.69 C<CBOR::XS::safe_filter> (C<new_safe> does this), which by default only
1211     includes conversion functions that are considered "safe" by the author
1212     (but again, they can be extended by third party modules).
1213 root 1.65
1214     Depending on your level of paranoia, you can use the "safe" filter:
1215    
1216     $cbor->filter (\&CBOR::XS::safe_filter);
1217    
1218     ... your own filter...
1219    
1220     $cbor->filter (sub { ... do your stuffs here ... });
1221    
1222     ... or even no filter at all, disabling all tag decoding:
1223    
1224     $cbor->filter (sub { });
1225    
1226     This is never a problem for encoding, as the tag mechanism only exists in
1227     CBOR texts.
1228    
1229     =item Resource-starving attacks: object memory usage
1230    
1231     You need to avoid resource-starving attacks. That means you should limit
1232     the size of CBOR data you accept, or make sure then when your resources
1233     run out, that's just fine (e.g. by using a separate process that can
1234     crash safely). The size of a CBOR string in octets is usually a good
1235 root 1.1 indication of the size of the resources required to decode it into a Perl
1236 root 1.65 structure. While CBOR::XS can check the size of the CBOR text (using
1237 root 1.69 C<max_size> - done by C<new_safe>), it might be too late when you already
1238     have it in memory, so you might want to check the size before you accept
1239     the string.
1240 root 1.65
1241     As for encoding, it is possible to construct data structures that are
1242     relatively small but result in large CBOR texts (for example by having an
1243     array full of references to the same big data structure, which will all be
1244     deep-cloned during encoding by default). This is rarely an actual issue
1245     (and the worst case is still just running out of memory), but you can
1246     reduce this risk by using C<allow_sharing>.
1247    
1248     =item Resource-starving attacks: stack overflows
1249    
1250     CBOR::XS recurses using the C stack when decoding objects and arrays. The
1251     C stack is a limited resource: for instance, on my amd64 machine with 8MB
1252     of stack size I can decode around 180k nested arrays but only 14k nested
1253     CBOR objects (due to perl itself recursing deeply on croak to free the
1254     temporary). If that is exceeded, the program crashes. To be conservative,
1255     the default nesting limit is set to 512. If your process has a smaller
1256     stack, you should adjust this setting accordingly with the C<max_depth>
1257     method.
1258    
1259     =item Resource-starving attacks: CPU en-/decoding complexity
1260    
1261     CBOR::XS will use the L<Math::BigInt>, L<Math::BigFloat> and
1262 root 1.69 L<Math::BigRat> libraries to represent encode/decode bignums. These can be
1263     very slow (as in, centuries of CPU time) and can even crash your program
1264     (and are generally not very trustworthy). See the next section on bignum
1265     security for details.
1266 root 1.65
1267     =item Data breaches: leaking information in error messages
1268    
1269     CBOR::XS might leak contents of your Perl data structures in its error
1270     messages, so when you serialise sensitive information you might want to
1271     make sure that exceptions thrown by CBOR::XS will not end up in front of
1272     untrusted eyes.
1273    
1274     =item Something else...
1275 root 1.1
1276     Something else could bomb you, too, that I forgot to think of. In that
1277     case, you get to keep the pieces. I am always open for hints, though...
1278    
1279 root 1.65 =back
1280 root 1.1
1281 root 1.55
1282     =head1 BIGNUM SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS
1283    
1284     CBOR::XS provides a C<TO_CBOR> method for both L<Math::BigInt> and
1285     L<Math::BigFloat> that tries to encode the number in the simplest possible
1286     way, that is, either a CBOR integer, a CBOR bigint/decimal fraction (tag
1287 root 1.58 4) or an arbitrary-exponent decimal fraction (tag 264). Rational numbers
1288     (L<Math::BigRat>, tag 30) can also contain bignums as members.
1289 root 1.55
1290 root 1.58 CBOR::XS will also understand base-2 bigfloat or arbitrary-exponent
1291     bigfloats (tags 5 and 265), but it will never generate these on its own.
1292 root 1.55
1293     Using the built-in L<Math::BigInt::Calc> support, encoding and decoding
1294     decimal fractions is generally fast. Decoding bigints can be slow for very
1295 root 1.58 big numbers (tens of thousands of digits, something that could potentially
1296     be caught by limiting the size of CBOR texts), and decoding bigfloats or
1297     arbitrary-exponent bigfloats can be I<extremely> slow (minutes, decades)
1298     for large exponents (roughly 40 bit and longer).
1299 root 1.55
1300     Additionally, L<Math::BigInt> can take advantage of other bignum
1301 root 1.58 libraries, such as L<Math::GMP>, which cannot handle big floats with large
1302     exponents, and might simply abort or crash your program, due to their code
1303     quality.
1304 root 1.55
1305     This can be a concern if you want to parse untrusted CBOR. If it is, you
1306 root 1.58 might want to disable decoding of tag 2 (bigint) and 3 (negative bigint)
1307     types. You should also disable types 5 and 265, as these can be slow even
1308     without bigints.
1309    
1310     Disabling bigints will also partially or fully disable types that rely on
1311     them, e.g. rational numbers that use bignums.
1312 root 1.55
1313    
1314 root 1.1 =head1 CBOR IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
1315    
1316     This section contains some random implementation notes. They do not
1317     describe guaranteed behaviour, but merely behaviour as-is implemented
1318     right now.
1319    
1320     64 bit integers are only properly decoded when Perl was built with 64 bit
1321     support.
1322    
1323     Strings and arrays are encoded with a definite length. Hashes as well,
1324     unless they are tied (or otherwise magical).
1325    
1326     Only the double data type is supported for NV data types - when Perl uses
1327     long double to represent floating point values, they might not be encoded
1328     properly. Half precision types are accepted, but not encoded.
1329    
1330     Strict mode and canonical mode are not implemented.
1331    
1332    
1333 root 1.30 =head1 LIMITATIONS ON PERLS WITHOUT 64-BIT INTEGER SUPPORT
1334    
1335     On perls that were built without 64 bit integer support (these are rare
1336 root 1.43 nowadays, even on 32 bit architectures, as all major Perl distributions
1337     are built with 64 bit integer support), support for any kind of 64 bit
1338 root 1.71 value in CBOR is very limited - most likely, these 64 bit values will
1339 root 1.30 be truncated, corrupted, or otherwise not decoded correctly. This also
1340 root 1.71 includes string, float, array and map sizes that are stored as 64 bit
1341     integers.
1342 root 1.30
1343    
1344 root 1.1 =head1 THREADS
1345    
1346     This module is I<not> guaranteed to be thread safe and there are no
1347     plans to change this until Perl gets thread support (as opposed to the
1348     horribly slow so-called "threads" which are simply slow and bloated
1349     process simulations - use fork, it's I<much> faster, cheaper, better).
1350    
1351     (It might actually work, but you have been warned).
1352    
1353    
1354     =head1 BUGS
1355    
1356     While the goal of this module is to be correct, that unfortunately does
1357     not mean it's bug-free, only that I think its design is bug-free. If you
1358     keep reporting bugs they will be fixed swiftly, though.
1359    
1360     Please refrain from using rt.cpan.org or any other bug reporting
1361     service. I put the contact address into my modules for a reason.
1362    
1363     =cut
1364    
1365 root 1.65 # clumsy and slow hv_store-in-hash helper function
1366 root 1.64 sub _hv_store {
1367     $_[0]{$_[1]} = $_[2];
1368     }
1369    
1370 root 1.22 our %FILTER = (
1371 root 1.35 0 => sub { # rfc4287 datetime, utf-8
1372     require Time::Piece;
1373     # Time::Piece::Strptime uses the "incredibly flexible date parsing routine"
1374     # from FreeBSD, which can't parse ISO 8601, RFC3339, RFC4287 or much of anything
1375     # else either. Whats incredibe over standard strptime totally escapes me.
1376     # doesn't do fractional times, either. sigh.
1377 root 1.36 # In fact, it's all a lie, it uses whatever strptime it wants, and of course,
1378 root 1.47 # they are all incompatible. The openbsd one simply ignores %z (but according to the
1379 root 1.37 # docs, it would be much more incredibly flexible indeed. If it worked, that is.).
1380 root 1.35 scalar eval {
1381     my $s = $_[1];
1382    
1383     $s =~ s/Z$/+00:00/;
1384 root 1.36 $s =~ s/(\.[0-9]+)?([+-][0-9][0-9]):([0-9][0-9])$//
1385 root 1.35 or die;
1386    
1387 root 1.36 my $b = $1 - ($2 * 60 + $3) * 60; # fractional part + offset. hopefully
1388     my $d = Time::Piece->strptime ($s, "%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S");
1389 root 1.35
1390 root 1.36 Time::Piece::gmtime ($d->epoch + $b)
1391 root 1.35 } || die "corrupted CBOR date/time string ($_[0])";
1392     },
1393    
1394     1 => sub { # seconds since the epoch, possibly fractional
1395     require Time::Piece;
1396     scalar Time::Piece::gmtime (pop)
1397     },
1398 root 1.22
1399     2 => sub { # pos bigint
1400     require Math::BigInt;
1401 root 1.57 Math::BigInt->new ("0x" . unpack "H*", pop)
1402 root 1.22 },
1403    
1404     3 => sub { # neg bigint
1405     require Math::BigInt;
1406 root 1.57 -Math::BigInt->new ("0x" . unpack "H*", pop)
1407 root 1.22 },
1408    
1409     4 => sub { # decimal fraction, array
1410     require Math::BigFloat;
1411     Math::BigFloat->new ($_[1][1] . "E" . $_[1][0])
1412     },
1413    
1414 root 1.58 264 => sub { # decimal fraction with arbitrary exponent
1415     require Math::BigFloat;
1416     Math::BigFloat->new ($_[1][1] . "E" . $_[1][0])
1417     },
1418    
1419 root 1.22 5 => sub { # bigfloat, array
1420     require Math::BigFloat;
1421 root 1.50 scalar Math::BigFloat->new ($_[1][1]) * Math::BigFloat->new (2)->bpow ($_[1][0])
1422 root 1.22 },
1423    
1424 root 1.58 265 => sub { # bigfloat with arbitrary exponent
1425     require Math::BigFloat;
1426     scalar Math::BigFloat->new ($_[1][1]) * Math::BigFloat->new (2)->bpow ($_[1][0])
1427     },
1428    
1429     30 => sub { # rational number
1430     require Math::BigRat;
1431     Math::BigRat->new ("$_[1][0]/$_[1][1]") # separate parameters only work in recent versons
1432     },
1433    
1434 root 1.22 21 => sub { pop }, # expected conversion to base64url encoding
1435     22 => sub { pop }, # expected conversion to base64 encoding
1436     23 => sub { pop }, # expected conversion to base16 encoding
1437    
1438     # 24 # embedded cbor, byte string
1439    
1440     32 => sub {
1441     require URI;
1442     URI->new (pop)
1443     },
1444    
1445     # 33 # base64url rfc4648, utf-8
1446     # 34 # base64 rfc46484, utf-8
1447     # 35 # regex pcre/ecma262, utf-8
1448     # 36 # mime message rfc2045, utf-8
1449     );
1450    
1451 root 1.65 sub default_filter {
1452 root 1.22 &{ $FILTER{$_[0]} or return }
1453     }
1454    
1455 root 1.65 our %SAFE_FILTER = map { $_ => $FILTER{$_} } 0, 1, 21, 22, 23, 32;
1456    
1457     sub safe_filter {
1458     &{ $SAFE_FILTER{$_[0]} or return }
1459     }
1460    
1461 root 1.22 sub URI::TO_CBOR {
1462     my $uri = $_[0]->as_string;
1463     utf8::upgrade $uri;
1464 root 1.35 tag 32, $uri
1465 root 1.22 }
1466    
1467     sub Math::BigInt::TO_CBOR {
1468 root 1.55 if (-2147483648 <= $_[0] && $_[0] <= 2147483647) {
1469 root 1.22 $_[0]->numify
1470     } else {
1471     my $hex = substr $_[0]->as_hex, 2;
1472     $hex = "0$hex" if 1 & length $hex; # sigh
1473 root 1.35 tag $_[0] >= 0 ? 2 : 3, pack "H*", $hex
1474 root 1.22 }
1475     }
1476    
1477     sub Math::BigFloat::TO_CBOR {
1478     my ($m, $e) = $_[0]->parts;
1479 root 1.55
1480     -9223372036854775808 <= $e && $e <= 18446744073709551615
1481     ? tag 4, [$e->numify, $m]
1482     : tag 264, [$e, $m]
1483 root 1.35 }
1484    
1485 root 1.58 sub Math::BigRat::TO_CBOR {
1486     my ($n, $d) = $_[0]->parts;
1487    
1488 root 1.60 # older versions of BigRat need *1, as they not always return numbers
1489 root 1.59
1490     $d*1 == 1
1491     ? $n*1
1492     : tag 30, [$n*1, $d*1]
1493 root 1.58 }
1494    
1495 root 1.35 sub Time::Piece::TO_CBOR {
1496 root 1.40 tag 1, 0 + $_[0]->epoch
1497 root 1.22 }
1498    
1499 root 1.1 XSLoader::load "CBOR::XS", $VERSION;
1500    
1501     =head1 SEE ALSO
1502    
1503     The L<JSON> and L<JSON::XS> modules that do similar, but human-readable,
1504     serialisation.
1505    
1506 root 1.6 The L<Types::Serialiser> module provides the data model for true, false
1507     and error values.
1508    
1509 root 1.1 =head1 AUTHOR
1510    
1511     Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>
1512     http://home.schmorp.de/
1513    
1514     =cut
1515    
1516 root 1.6 1
1517