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Revision: 1.87
Committed: Mon Dec 19 20:31:33 2022 UTC (16 months, 4 weeks ago) by root
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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 1.85 our $VERSION = 1.86;
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 root 1.82 ->validate_utf8
127 root 1.65 ->forbid_objects
128     ->filter (\&CBOR::XS::safe_filter)
129     ->max_size (1e8);
130    
131     But is more future proof (it is better to crash because of a change than
132     to be exploited in other ways).
133    
134     =cut
135    
136     sub new_safe {
137     CBOR::XS
138     ->new
139 root 1.82 ->validate_utf8
140 root 1.65 ->forbid_objects
141     ->filter (\&CBOR::XS::safe_filter)
142     ->max_size (1e8)
143     }
144    
145 root 1.1 =item $cbor = $cbor->max_depth ([$maximum_nesting_depth])
146    
147     =item $max_depth = $cbor->get_max_depth
148    
149     Sets the maximum nesting level (default C<512>) accepted while encoding
150     or decoding. If a higher nesting level is detected in CBOR data or a Perl
151     data structure, then the encoder and decoder will stop and croak at that
152     point.
153    
154     Nesting level is defined by number of hash- or arrayrefs that the encoder
155     needs to traverse to reach a given point or the number of C<{> or C<[>
156     characters without their matching closing parenthesis crossed to reach a
157     given character in a string.
158    
159     Setting the maximum depth to one disallows any nesting, so that ensures
160     that the object is only a single hash/object or array.
161    
162     If no argument is given, the highest possible setting will be used, which
163     is rarely useful.
164    
165     Note that nesting is implemented by recursion in C. The default value has
166     been chosen to be as large as typical operating systems allow without
167     crashing.
168    
169 root 1.65 See L<SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS>, below, for more info on why this is useful.
170 root 1.1
171     =item $cbor = $cbor->max_size ([$maximum_string_size])
172    
173     =item $max_size = $cbor->get_max_size
174    
175     Set the maximum length a CBOR string may have (in bytes) where decoding
176     is being attempted. The default is C<0>, meaning no limit. When C<decode>
177     is called on a string that is longer then this many bytes, it will not
178     attempt to decode the string but throw an exception. This setting has no
179     effect on C<encode> (yet).
180    
181     If no argument is given, the limit check will be deactivated (same as when
182     C<0> is specified).
183    
184 root 1.65 See L<SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS>, below, for more info on why this is useful.
185 root 1.1
186 root 1.19 =item $cbor = $cbor->allow_unknown ([$enable])
187    
188     =item $enabled = $cbor->get_allow_unknown
189    
190     If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then C<encode> will I<not> throw an
191     exception when it encounters values it cannot represent in CBOR (for
192     example, filehandles) but instead will encode a CBOR C<error> value.
193    
194     If C<$enable> is false (the default), then C<encode> will throw an
195     exception when it encounters anything it cannot encode as CBOR.
196    
197     This option does not affect C<decode> in any way, and it is recommended to
198     leave it off unless you know your communications partner.
199    
200 root 1.20 =item $cbor = $cbor->allow_sharing ([$enable])
201 root 1.19
202 root 1.20 =item $enabled = $cbor->get_allow_sharing
203 root 1.19
204     If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then C<encode> will not double-encode
205 root 1.20 values that have been referenced before (e.g. when the same object, such
206     as an array, is referenced multiple times), but instead will emit a
207     reference to the earlier value.
208 root 1.19
209     This means that such values will only be encoded once, and will not result
210     in a deep cloning of the value on decode, in decoders supporting the value
211 root 1.25 sharing extension. This also makes it possible to encode cyclic data
212 root 1.62 structures (which need C<allow_cycles> to be enabled to be decoded by this
213 root 1.31 module).
214 root 1.19
215 root 1.21 It is recommended to leave it off unless you know your
216     communication partner supports the value sharing extensions to CBOR
217 root 1.26 (L<http://cbor.schmorp.de/value-sharing>), as without decoder support, the
218 root 1.25 resulting data structure might be unusable.
219 root 1.21
220 root 1.19 Detecting shared values incurs a runtime overhead when values are encoded
221     that have a reference counter large than one, and might unnecessarily
222 root 1.69 increase the encoded size, as potentially shared values are encoded as
223 root 1.31 shareable whether or not they are actually shared.
224 root 1.19
225 root 1.20 At the moment, only targets of references can be shared (e.g. scalars,
226     arrays or hashes pointed to by a reference). Weirder constructs, such as
227     an array with multiple "copies" of the I<same> string, which are hard but
228     not impossible to create in Perl, are not supported (this is the same as
229 root 1.25 with L<Storable>).
230 root 1.19
231 root 1.25 If C<$enable> is false (the default), then C<encode> will encode shared
232     data structures repeatedly, unsharing them in the process. Cyclic data
233     structures cannot be encoded in this mode.
234 root 1.19
235     This option does not affect C<decode> in any way - shared values and
236 root 1.21 references will always be decoded properly if present.
237    
238 root 1.31 =item $cbor = $cbor->allow_cycles ([$enable])
239    
240     =item $enabled = $cbor->get_allow_cycles
241    
242     If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then C<decode> will happily decode
243     self-referential (cyclic) data structures. By default these will not be
244     decoded, as they need manual cleanup to avoid memory leaks, so code that
245     isn't prepared for this will not leak memory.
246    
247     If C<$enable> is false (the default), then C<decode> will throw an error
248     when it encounters a self-referential/cyclic data structure.
249    
250 root 1.41 FUTURE DIRECTION: the motivation behind this option is to avoid I<real>
251     cycles - future versions of this module might chose to decode cyclic data
252     structures using weak references when this option is off, instead of
253     throwing an error.
254    
255 root 1.31 This option does not affect C<encode> in any way - shared values and
256 root 1.42 references will always be encoded properly if present.
257 root 1.31
258 root 1.65 =item $cbor = $cbor->forbid_objects ([$enable])
259    
260     =item $enabled = $cbor->get_forbid_objects
261    
262     Disables the use of the object serialiser protocol.
263    
264     If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then C<encode> will will throw an
265     exception when it encounters perl objects that would be encoded using the
266     perl-object tag (26). When C<decode> encounters such tags, it will fall
267     back to the general filter/tagged logic as if this were an unknown tag (by
268     default resulting in a C<CBOR::XC::Tagged> object).
269    
270     If C<$enable> is false (the default), then C<encode> will use the
271     L<Types::Serialiser> object serialisation protocol to serialise objects
272     into perl-object tags, and C<decode> will do the same to decode such tags.
273    
274     See L<SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS>, below, for more info on why forbidding this
275     protocol can be useful.
276    
277 root 1.25 =item $cbor = $cbor->pack_strings ([$enable])
278 root 1.21
279 root 1.25 =item $enabled = $cbor->get_pack_strings
280 root 1.21
281     If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then C<encode> will try not to encode
282     the same string twice, but will instead encode a reference to the string
283 root 1.25 instead. Depending on your data format, this can save a lot of space, but
284 root 1.21 also results in a very large runtime overhead (expect encoding times to be
285     2-4 times as high as without).
286    
287     It is recommended to leave it off unless you know your
288     communications partner supports the stringref extension to CBOR
289 root 1.26 (L<http://cbor.schmorp.de/stringref>), as without decoder support, the
290 root 1.25 resulting data structure might not be usable.
291 root 1.21
292 root 1.25 If C<$enable> is false (the default), then C<encode> will encode strings
293     the standard CBOR way.
294 root 1.21
295     This option does not affect C<decode> in any way - string references will
296     always be decoded properly if present.
297 root 1.19
298 root 1.52 =item $cbor = $cbor->text_keys ([$enable])
299    
300     =item $enabled = $cbor->get_text_keys
301    
302     If C<$enabled> is true (or missing), then C<encode> will encode all
303     perl hash keys as CBOR text strings/UTF-8 string, upgrading them as needed.
304    
305     If C<$enable> is false (the default), then C<encode> will encode hash keys
306     normally - upgraded perl strings (strings internally encoded as UTF-8) as
307     CBOR text strings, and downgraded perl strings as CBOR byte strings.
308    
309     This option does not affect C<decode> in any way.
310    
311     This option is useful for interoperability with CBOR decoders that don't
312     treat byte strings as a form of text. It is especially useful as Perl
313     gives very little control over hash keys.
314    
315     Enabling this option can be slow, as all downgraded hash keys that are
316     encoded need to be scanned and converted to UTF-8.
317    
318     =item $cbor = $cbor->text_strings ([$enable])
319    
320     =item $enabled = $cbor->get_text_strings
321    
322     This option works similar to C<text_keys>, above, but works on all strings
323     (including hash keys), so C<text_keys> has no further effect after
324     enabling C<text_strings>.
325    
326     If C<$enabled> is true (or missing), then C<encode> will encode all perl
327     strings as CBOR text strings/UTF-8 strings, upgrading them as needed.
328    
329     If C<$enable> is false (the default), then C<encode> will encode strings
330     normally (but see C<text_keys>) - upgraded perl strings (strings
331     internally encoded as UTF-8) as CBOR text strings, and downgraded perl
332     strings as CBOR byte strings.
333    
334     This option does not affect C<decode> in any way.
335    
336     This option has similar advantages and disadvantages as C<text_keys>. In
337 root 1.71 addition, this option effectively removes the ability to automatically
338     encode byte strings, which might break some C<FREEZE> and C<TO_CBOR>
339     methods that rely on this.
340    
341     A workaround is to use explicit type casts, which are unaffected by this option.
342 root 1.52
343 root 1.33 =item $cbor = $cbor->validate_utf8 ([$enable])
344    
345     =item $enabled = $cbor->get_validate_utf8
346    
347     If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then C<decode> will validate that
348     elements (text strings) containing UTF-8 data in fact contain valid UTF-8
349     data (instead of blindly accepting it). This validation obviously takes
350     extra time during decoding.
351    
352     The concept of "valid UTF-8" used is perl's concept, which is a superset
353     of the official UTF-8.
354    
355     If C<$enable> is false (the default), then C<decode> will blindly accept
356     UTF-8 data, marking them as valid UTF-8 in the resulting data structure
357 root 1.51 regardless of whether that's true or not.
358 root 1.33
359     Perl isn't too happy about corrupted UTF-8 in strings, but should
360     generally not crash or do similarly evil things. Extensions might be not
361     so forgiving, so it's recommended to turn on this setting if you receive
362     untrusted CBOR.
363    
364     This option does not affect C<encode> in any way - strings that are
365     supposedly valid UTF-8 will simply be dumped into the resulting CBOR
366     string without checking whether that is, in fact, true or not.
367    
368 root 1.23 =item $cbor = $cbor->filter ([$cb->($tag, $value)])
369    
370     =item $cb_or_undef = $cbor->get_filter
371    
372 root 1.24 Sets or replaces the tagged value decoding filter (when C<$cb> is
373     specified) or clears the filter (if no argument or C<undef> is provided).
374    
375     The filter callback is called only during decoding, when a non-enforced
376     tagged value has been decoded (see L<TAG HANDLING AND EXTENSIONS> for a
377     list of enforced tags). For specific tags, it's often better to provide a
378     default converter using the C<%CBOR::XS::FILTER> hash (see below).
379    
380     The first argument is the numerical tag, the second is the (decoded) value
381     that has been tagged.
382    
383     The filter function should return either exactly one value, which will
384     replace the tagged value in the decoded data structure, or no values,
385     which will result in default handling, which currently means the decoder
386     creates a C<CBOR::XS::Tagged> object to hold the tag and the value.
387    
388     When the filter is cleared (the default state), the default filter
389 root 1.65 function, C<CBOR::XS::default_filter>, is used. This function simply
390     looks up the tag in the C<%CBOR::XS::FILTER> hash. If an entry exists
391     it must be a code reference that is called with tag and value, and is
392     responsible for decoding the value. If no entry exists, it returns no
393     values. C<CBOR::XS> provides a number of default filter functions already,
394     the the C<%CBOR::XS::FILTER> hash can be freely extended with more.
395    
396     C<CBOR::XS> additionally provides an alternative filter function that is
397     supposed to be safe to use with untrusted data (which the default filter
398     might not), called C<CBOR::XS::safe_filter>, which works the same as
399     the C<default_filter> but uses the C<%CBOR::XS::SAFE_FILTER> variable
400     instead. It is prepopulated with the tag decoding functions that are
401     deemed safe (basically the same as C<%CBOR::XS::FILTER> without all
402     the bignum tags), and can be extended by user code as wlel, although,
403     obviously, one should be very careful about adding decoding functions
404     here, since the expectation is that they are safe to use on untrusted
405     data, after all.
406 root 1.24
407 root 1.28 Example: decode all tags not handled internally into C<CBOR::XS::Tagged>
408 root 1.24 objects, with no other special handling (useful when working with
409     potentially "unsafe" CBOR data).
410    
411     CBOR::XS->new->filter (sub { })->decode ($cbor_data);
412    
413     Example: provide a global filter for tag 1347375694, converting the value
414     into some string form.
415    
416     $CBOR::XS::FILTER{1347375694} = sub {
417     my ($tag, $value);
418    
419     "tag 1347375694 value $value"
420     };
421 root 1.23
422 root 1.65 Example: provide your own filter function that looks up tags in your own
423     hash:
424    
425     my %my_filter = (
426     998347484 => sub {
427     my ($tag, $value);
428    
429     "tag 998347484 value $value"
430     };
431     );
432    
433     my $coder = CBOR::XS->new->filter (sub {
434     &{ $my_filter{$_[0]} or return }
435     });
436    
437    
438     Example: use the safe filter function (see L<SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS> for
439     more considerations on security).
440    
441     CBOR::XS->new->filter (\&CBOR::XS::safe_filter)->decode ($cbor_data);
442    
443 root 1.1 =item $cbor_data = $cbor->encode ($perl_scalar)
444    
445     Converts the given Perl data structure (a scalar value) to its CBOR
446     representation.
447    
448     =item $perl_scalar = $cbor->decode ($cbor_data)
449    
450     The opposite of C<encode>: expects CBOR data and tries to parse it,
451     returning the resulting simple scalar or reference. Croaks on error.
452    
453     =item ($perl_scalar, $octets) = $cbor->decode_prefix ($cbor_data)
454    
455     This works like the C<decode> method, but instead of raising an exception
456     when there is trailing garbage after the CBOR string, it will silently
457     stop parsing there and return the number of characters consumed so far.
458    
459     This is useful if your CBOR texts are not delimited by an outer protocol
460     and you need to know where the first CBOR string ends amd the next one
461 root 1.70 starts - CBOR strings are self-delimited, so it is possible to concatenate
462     CBOR strings without any delimiters or size fields and recover their data.
463 root 1.1
464     CBOR::XS->new->decode_prefix ("......")
465     => ("...", 3)
466    
467     =back
468    
469 root 1.39 =head2 INCREMENTAL PARSING
470    
471     In some cases, there is the need for incremental parsing of JSON
472     texts. While this module always has to keep both CBOR text and resulting
473     Perl data structure in memory at one time, it does allow you to parse a
474     CBOR stream incrementally, using a similar to using "decode_prefix" to see
475     if a full CBOR object is available, but is much more efficient.
476    
477     It basically works by parsing as much of a CBOR string as possible - if
478 root 1.86 the CBOR data is not complete yet, the parser will remember where it was,
479 root 1.39 to be able to restart when more data has been accumulated. Once enough
480     data is available to either decode a complete CBOR value or raise an
481     error, a real decode will be attempted.
482    
483     A typical use case would be a network protocol that consists of sending
484     and receiving CBOR-encoded messages. The solution that works with CBOR and
485     about anything else is by prepending a length to every CBOR value, so the
486     receiver knows how many octets to read. More compact (and slightly slower)
487     would be to just send CBOR values back-to-back, as C<CBOR::XS> knows where
488     a CBOR value ends, and doesn't need an explicit length.
489    
490     The following methods help with this:
491    
492     =over 4
493    
494     =item @decoded = $cbor->incr_parse ($buffer)
495    
496     This method attempts to decode exactly one CBOR value from the beginning
497     of the given C<$buffer>. The value is removed from the C<$buffer> on
498     success. When C<$buffer> doesn't contain a complete value yet, it returns
499     nothing. Finally, when the C<$buffer> doesn't start with something
500     that could ever be a valid CBOR value, it raises an exception, just as
501     C<decode> would. In the latter case the decoder state is undefined and
502     must be reset before being able to parse further.
503    
504     This method modifies the C<$buffer> in place. When no CBOR value can be
505     decoded, the decoder stores the current string offset. On the next call,
506     continues decoding at the place where it stopped before. For this to make
507     sense, the C<$buffer> must begin with the same octets as on previous
508     unsuccessful calls.
509    
510     You can call this method in scalar context, in which case it either
511     returns a decoded value or C<undef>. This makes it impossible to
512     distinguish between CBOR null values (which decode to C<undef>) and an
513     unsuccessful decode, which is often acceptable.
514    
515     =item @decoded = $cbor->incr_parse_multiple ($buffer)
516    
517     Same as C<incr_parse>, but attempts to decode as many CBOR values as
518     possible in one go, instead of at most one. Calls to C<incr_parse> and
519     C<incr_parse_multiple> can be interleaved.
520    
521     =item $cbor->incr_reset
522    
523     Resets the incremental decoder. This throws away any saved state, so that
524     subsequent calls to C<incr_parse> or C<incr_parse_multiple> start to parse
525     a new CBOR value from the beginning of the C<$buffer> again.
526    
527 root 1.61 This method can be called at any time, but it I<must> be called if you want
528 root 1.39 to change your C<$buffer> or there was a decoding error and you want to
529     reuse the C<$cbor> object for future incremental parsings.
530    
531     =back
532    
533 root 1.1
534     =head1 MAPPING
535    
536     This section describes how CBOR::XS maps Perl values to CBOR values and
537     vice versa. These mappings are designed to "do the right thing" in most
538     circumstances automatically, preserving round-tripping characteristics
539     (what you put in comes out as something equivalent).
540    
541     For the more enlightened: note that in the following descriptions,
542     lowercase I<perl> refers to the Perl interpreter, while uppercase I<Perl>
543     refers to the abstract Perl language itself.
544    
545    
546     =head2 CBOR -> PERL
547    
548     =over 4
549    
550 root 1.4 =item integers
551    
552     CBOR integers become (numeric) perl scalars. On perls without 64 bit
553     support, 64 bit integers will be truncated or otherwise corrupted.
554    
555     =item byte strings
556    
557 root 1.27 Byte strings will become octet strings in Perl (the Byte values 0..255
558 root 1.4 will simply become characters of the same value in Perl).
559    
560     =item UTF-8 strings
561    
562     UTF-8 strings in CBOR will be decoded, i.e. the UTF-8 octets will be
563     decoded into proper Unicode code points. At the moment, the validity of
564     the UTF-8 octets will not be validated - corrupt input will result in
565     corrupted Perl strings.
566    
567     =item arrays, maps
568    
569     CBOR arrays and CBOR maps will be converted into references to a Perl
570     array or hash, respectively. The keys of the map will be stringified
571     during this process.
572    
573 root 1.6 =item null
574    
575     CBOR null becomes C<undef> in Perl.
576    
577     =item true, false, undefined
578 root 1.1
579 root 1.6 These CBOR values become C<Types:Serialiser::true>,
580     C<Types:Serialiser::false> and C<Types::Serialiser::error>,
581 root 1.1 respectively. They are overloaded to act almost exactly like the numbers
582 root 1.6 C<1> and C<0> (for true and false) or to throw an exception on access (for
583     error). See the L<Types::Serialiser> manpage for details.
584    
585 root 1.23 =item tagged values
586 root 1.1
587 root 1.23 Tagged items consists of a numeric tag and another CBOR value.
588 root 1.4
589 root 1.23 See L<TAG HANDLING AND EXTENSIONS> and the description of C<< ->filter >>
590 root 1.28 for details on which tags are handled how.
591 root 1.4
592     =item anything else
593    
594     Anything else (e.g. unsupported simple values) will raise a decoding
595     error.
596 root 1.1
597     =back
598    
599    
600     =head2 PERL -> CBOR
601    
602     The mapping from Perl to CBOR is slightly more difficult, as Perl is a
603 root 1.28 typeless language. That means this module can only guess which CBOR type
604     is meant by a perl value.
605 root 1.1
606     =over 4
607    
608     =item hash references
609    
610 root 1.4 Perl hash references become CBOR maps. As there is no inherent ordering in
611     hash keys (or CBOR maps), they will usually be encoded in a pseudo-random
612 root 1.49 order. This order can be different each time a hash is encoded.
613 root 1.4
614     Currently, tied hashes will use the indefinite-length format, while normal
615     hashes will use the fixed-length format.
616 root 1.1
617     =item array references
618    
619 root 1.4 Perl array references become fixed-length CBOR arrays.
620 root 1.1
621     =item other references
622    
623 root 1.28 Other unblessed references will be represented using
624     the indirection tag extension (tag value C<22098>,
625     L<http://cbor.schmorp.de/indirection>). CBOR decoders are guaranteed
626     to be able to decode these values somehow, by either "doing the right
627     thing", decoding into a generic tagged object, simply ignoring the tag, or
628     something else.
629 root 1.4
630     =item CBOR::XS::Tagged objects
631    
632     Objects of this type must be arrays consisting of a single C<[tag, value]>
633 root 1.13 pair. The (numerical) tag will be encoded as a CBOR tag, the value will
634 root 1.28 be encoded as appropriate for the value. You must use C<CBOR::XS::tag> to
635 root 1.13 create such objects.
636 root 1.1
637 root 1.6 =item Types::Serialiser::true, Types::Serialiser::false, Types::Serialiser::error
638 root 1.1
639 root 1.6 These special values become CBOR true, CBOR false and CBOR undefined
640 root 1.87 values, respectively.
641 root 1.1
642 root 1.7 =item other blessed objects
643 root 1.1
644 root 1.7 Other blessed objects are serialised via C<TO_CBOR> or C<FREEZE>. See
645 root 1.23 L<TAG HANDLING AND EXTENSIONS> for specific classes handled by this
646     module, and L<OBJECT SERIALISATION> for generic object serialisation.
647 root 1.1
648     =item simple scalars
649    
650     Simple Perl scalars (any scalar that is not a reference) are the most
651     difficult objects to encode: CBOR::XS will encode undefined scalars as
652 root 1.4 CBOR null values, scalars that have last been used in a string context
653 root 1.1 before encoding as CBOR strings, and anything else as number value:
654    
655     # dump as number
656     encode_cbor [2] # yields [2]
657     encode_cbor [-3.0e17] # yields [-3e+17]
658     my $value = 5; encode_cbor [$value] # yields [5]
659    
660 root 1.27 # used as string, so dump as string (either byte or text)
661 root 1.1 print $value;
662     encode_cbor [$value] # yields ["5"]
663    
664     # undef becomes null
665     encode_cbor [undef] # yields [null]
666    
667     You can force the type to be a CBOR string by stringifying it:
668    
669     my $x = 3.1; # some variable containing a number
670     "$x"; # stringified
671     $x .= ""; # another, more awkward way to stringify
672     print $x; # perl does it for you, too, quite often
673    
674 root 1.53 You can force whether a string is encoded as byte or text string by using
675 root 1.71 C<utf8::upgrade> and C<utf8::downgrade> (if C<text_strings> is disabled).
676 root 1.27
677     utf8::upgrade $x; # encode $x as text string
678     utf8::downgrade $x; # encode $x as byte string
679    
680 root 1.71 More options are available, see L<TYPE CASTS>, below, and the C<text_keys>
681     and C<text_strings> options.
682    
683 root 1.27 Perl doesn't define what operations up- and downgrade strings, so if the
684     difference between byte and text is important, you should up- or downgrade
685 root 1.53 your string as late as possible before encoding. You can also force the
686     use of CBOR text strings by using C<text_keys> or C<text_strings>.
687 root 1.27
688 root 1.1 You can force the type to be a CBOR number by numifying it:
689    
690     my $x = "3"; # some variable containing a string
691     $x += 0; # numify it, ensuring it will be dumped as a number
692     $x *= 1; # same thing, the choice is yours.
693    
694     You can not currently force the type in other, less obscure, ways. Tell me
695     if you need this capability (but don't forget to explain why it's needed
696     :).
697    
698 root 1.4 Perl values that seem to be integers generally use the shortest possible
699     representation. Floating-point values will use either the IEEE single
700     format if possible without loss of precision, otherwise the IEEE double
701     format will be used. Perls that use formats other than IEEE double to
702     represent numerical values are supported, but might suffer loss of
703     precision.
704 root 1.1
705     =back
706    
707 root 1.71 =head2 TYPE CASTS
708    
709     B<EXPERIMENTAL>: As an experimental extension, C<CBOR::XS> allows you to
710 root 1.81 force specific CBOR types to be used when encoding. That allows you to
711 root 1.71 encode types not normally accessible (e.g. half floats) as well as force
712     string types even when C<text_strings> is in effect.
713    
714     Type forcing is done by calling a special "cast" function which keeps a
715     copy of the value and returns a new value that can be handed over to any
716     CBOR encoder function.
717    
718 root 1.79 The following casts are currently available (all of which are unary
719     operators, that is, have a prototype of C<$>):
720 root 1.71
721     =over
722    
723 root 1.72 =item CBOR::XS::as_int $value
724    
725     Forces the value to be encoded as some form of (basic, not bignum) integer
726     type.
727    
728 root 1.71 =item CBOR::XS::as_text $value
729    
730     Forces the value to be encoded as (UTF-8) text values.
731    
732     =item CBOR::XS::as_bytes $value
733    
734     Forces the value to be encoded as a (binary) string value.
735    
736 root 1.77 Example: encode a perl string as binary even though C<text_strings> is in
737     effect.
738    
739     CBOR::XS->new->text_strings->encode ([4, "text", CBOR::XS::bytes "bytevalue"]);
740    
741 root 1.75 =item CBOR::XS::as_bool $value
742    
743     Converts a Perl boolean (which can be any kind of scalar) into a CBOR
744 root 1.76 boolean. Strictly the same, but shorter to write, than:
745 root 1.75
746     $value ? Types::Serialiser::true : Types::Serialiser::false
747    
748 root 1.71 =item CBOR::XS::as_float16 $value
749    
750     Forces half-float (IEEE 754 binary16) encoding of the given value.
751    
752     =item CBOR::XS::as_float32 $value
753    
754     Forces single-float (IEEE 754 binary32) encoding of the given value.
755    
756     =item CBOR::XS::as_float64 $value
757    
758     Forces double-float (IEEE 754 binary64) encoding of the given value.
759    
760 root 1.77 =item CBOR::XS::as_cbor $cbor_text
761 root 1.71
762 root 1.81 Not a type cast per-se, this type cast forces the argument to be encoded
763 root 1.71 as-is. This can be used to embed pre-encoded CBOR data.
764    
765     Note that no checking on the validity of the C<$cbor_text> is done - it's
766     the callers responsibility to correctly encode values.
767    
768 root 1.77 =item CBOR::XS::as_map [key => value...]
769    
770     Treat the array reference as key value pairs and output a CBOR map. This
771     allows you to generate CBOR maps with arbitrary key types (or, if you
772 root 1.80 don't care about semantics, duplicate keys or pairs in a custom order),
773 root 1.77 which is otherwise hard to do with Perl.
774    
775     The single argument must be an array reference with an even number of
776     elements.
777    
778 root 1.80 Note that only the reference to the array is copied, the array itself is
779 root 1.81 not. Modifications done to the array before calling an encoding function
780 root 1.80 will be reflected in the encoded output.
781    
782 root 1.77 Example: encode a CBOR map with a string and an integer as keys.
783 root 1.71
784 root 1.77 encode_cbor CBOR::XS::as_map [string => "value", 5 => "value"]
785 root 1.71
786 root 1.77 =back
787 root 1.71
788     =cut
789    
790 root 1.74 sub CBOR::XS::as_cbor ($) { bless [$_[0], 0, undef], CBOR::XS::Tagged:: }
791     sub CBOR::XS::as_int ($) { bless [$_[0], 1, undef], CBOR::XS::Tagged:: }
792 root 1.72 sub CBOR::XS::as_bytes ($) { bless [$_[0], 2, undef], CBOR::XS::Tagged:: }
793     sub CBOR::XS::as_text ($) { bless [$_[0], 3, undef], CBOR::XS::Tagged:: }
794     sub CBOR::XS::as_float16 ($) { bless [$_[0], 4, undef], CBOR::XS::Tagged:: }
795     sub CBOR::XS::as_float32 ($) { bless [$_[0], 5, undef], CBOR::XS::Tagged:: }
796     sub CBOR::XS::as_float64 ($) { bless [$_[0], 6, undef], CBOR::XS::Tagged:: }
797 root 1.71
798 root 1.76 sub CBOR::XS::as_bool ($) { $_[0] ? $Types::Serialiser::true : $Types::Serialiser::false }
799 root 1.75
800 root 1.77 sub CBOR::XS::as_map ($) {
801     ARRAY:: eq ref $_[0]
802     and $#{ $_[0] } & 1
803 root 1.78 or do { require Carp; Carp::croak ("CBOR::XS::as_map only acepts array references with an even number of elements, caught") };
804 root 1.77
805     bless [$_[0], 7, undef], CBOR::XS::Tagged::
806     }
807    
808 root 1.7 =head2 OBJECT SERIALISATION
809    
810 root 1.29 This module implements both a CBOR-specific and the generic
811     L<Types::Serialier> object serialisation protocol. The following
812     subsections explain both methods.
813    
814     =head3 ENCODING
815    
816 root 1.7 This module knows two way to serialise a Perl object: The CBOR-specific
817     way, and the generic way.
818    
819 root 1.29 Whenever the encoder encounters a Perl object that it cannot serialise
820 root 1.7 directly (most of them), it will first look up the C<TO_CBOR> method on
821     it.
822    
823     If it has a C<TO_CBOR> method, it will call it with the object as only
824     argument, and expects exactly one return value, which it will then
825     substitute and encode it in the place of the object.
826    
827     Otherwise, it will look up the C<FREEZE> method. If it exists, it will
828     call it with the object as first argument, and the constant string C<CBOR>
829     as the second argument, to distinguish it from other serialisers.
830    
831     The C<FREEZE> method can return any number of values (i.e. zero or
832     more). These will be encoded as CBOR perl object, together with the
833     classname.
834    
835 root 1.29 These methods I<MUST NOT> change the data structure that is being
836     serialised. Failure to comply to this can result in memory corruption -
837     and worse.
838    
839 root 1.7 If an object supports neither C<TO_CBOR> nor C<FREEZE>, encoding will fail
840     with an error.
841    
842 root 1.29 =head3 DECODING
843    
844     Objects encoded via C<TO_CBOR> cannot (normally) be automatically decoded,
845     but objects encoded via C<FREEZE> can be decoded using the following
846     protocol:
847 root 1.7
848     When an encoded CBOR perl object is encountered by the decoder, it will
849     look up the C<THAW> method, by using the stored classname, and will fail
850     if the method cannot be found.
851    
852     After the lookup it will call the C<THAW> method with the stored classname
853     as first argument, the constant string C<CBOR> as second argument, and all
854     values returned by C<FREEZE> as remaining arguments.
855    
856 root 1.29 =head3 EXAMPLES
857 root 1.7
858     Here is an example C<TO_CBOR> method:
859    
860     sub My::Object::TO_CBOR {
861     my ($obj) = @_;
862    
863     ["this is a serialised My::Object object", $obj->{id}]
864     }
865    
866     When a C<My::Object> is encoded to CBOR, it will instead encode a simple
867     array with two members: a string, and the "object id". Decoding this CBOR
868     string will yield a normal perl array reference in place of the object.
869    
870     A more useful and practical example would be a serialisation method for
871     the URI module. CBOR has a custom tag value for URIs, namely 32:
872    
873     sub URI::TO_CBOR {
874     my ($self) = @_;
875     my $uri = "$self"; # stringify uri
876     utf8::upgrade $uri; # make sure it will be encoded as UTF-8 string
877 root 1.28 CBOR::XS::tag 32, "$_[0]"
878 root 1.7 }
879    
880     This will encode URIs as a UTF-8 string with tag 32, which indicates an
881     URI.
882    
883     Decoding such an URI will not (currently) give you an URI object, but
884     instead a CBOR::XS::Tagged object with tag number 32 and the string -
885     exactly what was returned by C<TO_CBOR>.
886    
887     To serialise an object so it can automatically be deserialised, you need
888     to use C<FREEZE> and C<THAW>. To take the URI module as example, this
889     would be a possible implementation:
890    
891     sub URI::FREEZE {
892     my ($self, $serialiser) = @_;
893     "$self" # encode url string
894     }
895    
896     sub URI::THAW {
897     my ($class, $serialiser, $uri) = @_;
898     $class->new ($uri)
899     }
900    
901     Unlike C<TO_CBOR>, multiple values can be returned by C<FREEZE>. For
902     example, a C<FREEZE> method that returns "type", "id" and "variant" values
903     would cause an invocation of C<THAW> with 5 arguments:
904    
905     sub My::Object::FREEZE {
906     my ($self, $serialiser) = @_;
907    
908     ($self->{type}, $self->{id}, $self->{variant})
909     }
910    
911     sub My::Object::THAW {
912     my ($class, $serialiser, $type, $id, $variant) = @_;
913    
914     $class-<new (type => $type, id => $id, variant => $variant)
915     }
916    
917 root 1.1
918 root 1.7 =head1 MAGIC HEADER
919 root 1.3
920     There is no way to distinguish CBOR from other formats
921     programmatically. To make it easier to distinguish CBOR from other
922     formats, the CBOR specification has a special "magic string" that can be
923 root 1.18 prepended to any CBOR string without changing its meaning.
924 root 1.3
925     This string is available as C<$CBOR::XS::MAGIC>. This module does not
926 root 1.18 prepend this string to the CBOR data it generates, but it will ignore it
927 root 1.3 if present, so users can prepend this string as a "file type" indicator as
928     required.
929    
930    
931 root 1.12 =head1 THE CBOR::XS::Tagged CLASS
932    
933     CBOR has the concept of tagged values - any CBOR value can be tagged with
934     a numeric 64 bit number, which are centrally administered.
935    
936     C<CBOR::XS> handles a few tags internally when en- or decoding. You can
937     also create tags yourself by encoding C<CBOR::XS::Tagged> objects, and the
938     decoder will create C<CBOR::XS::Tagged> objects itself when it hits an
939     unknown tag.
940    
941     These objects are simply blessed array references - the first member of
942     the array being the numerical tag, the second being the value.
943    
944     You can interact with C<CBOR::XS::Tagged> objects in the following ways:
945    
946     =over 4
947    
948     =item $tagged = CBOR::XS::tag $tag, $value
949    
950     This function(!) creates a new C<CBOR::XS::Tagged> object using the given
951     C<$tag> (0..2**64-1) to tag the given C<$value> (which can be any Perl
952     value that can be encoded in CBOR, including serialisable Perl objects and
953     C<CBOR::XS::Tagged> objects).
954    
955     =item $tagged->[0]
956    
957     =item $tagged->[0] = $new_tag
958    
959     =item $tag = $tagged->tag
960    
961     =item $new_tag = $tagged->tag ($new_tag)
962    
963     Access/mutate the tag.
964    
965     =item $tagged->[1]
966    
967     =item $tagged->[1] = $new_value
968    
969     =item $value = $tagged->value
970    
971     =item $new_value = $tagged->value ($new_value)
972    
973     Access/mutate the tagged value.
974    
975     =back
976    
977     =cut
978    
979     sub tag($$) {
980     bless [@_], CBOR::XS::Tagged::;
981     }
982    
983     sub CBOR::XS::Tagged::tag {
984     $_[0][0] = $_[1] if $#_;
985     $_[0][0]
986     }
987    
988     sub CBOR::XS::Tagged::value {
989     $_[0][1] = $_[1] if $#_;
990     $_[0][1]
991     }
992    
993 root 1.13 =head2 EXAMPLES
994    
995     Here are some examples of C<CBOR::XS::Tagged> uses to tag objects.
996    
997     You can look up CBOR tag value and emanings in the IANA registry at
998     L<http://www.iana.org/assignments/cbor-tags/cbor-tags.xhtml>.
999    
1000     Prepend a magic header (C<$CBOR::XS::MAGIC>):
1001    
1002     my $cbor = encode_cbor CBOR::XS::tag 55799, $value;
1003     # same as:
1004     my $cbor = $CBOR::XS::MAGIC . encode_cbor $value;
1005    
1006     Serialise some URIs and a regex in an array:
1007    
1008     my $cbor = encode_cbor [
1009     (CBOR::XS::tag 32, "http://www.nethype.de/"),
1010     (CBOR::XS::tag 32, "http://software.schmorp.de/"),
1011     (CBOR::XS::tag 35, "^[Pp][Ee][Rr][lL]\$"),
1012     ];
1013    
1014     Wrap CBOR data in CBOR:
1015    
1016     my $cbor_cbor = encode_cbor
1017     CBOR::XS::tag 24,
1018     encode_cbor [1, 2, 3];
1019    
1020 root 1.19 =head1 TAG HANDLING AND EXTENSIONS
1021    
1022 root 1.22 This section describes how this module handles specific tagged values
1023     and extensions. If a tag is not mentioned here and no additional filters
1024     are provided for it, then the default handling applies (creating a
1025     CBOR::XS::Tagged object on decoding, and only encoding the tag when
1026     explicitly requested).
1027 root 1.19
1028 root 1.23 Tags not handled specifically are currently converted into a
1029     L<CBOR::XS::Tagged> object, which is simply a blessed array reference
1030     consisting of the numeric tag value followed by the (decoded) CBOR value.
1031    
1032 root 1.19 Future versions of this module reserve the right to special case
1033 root 1.22 additional tags (such as base64url).
1034    
1035     =head2 ENFORCED TAGS
1036    
1037     These tags are always handled when decoding, and their handling cannot be
1038 root 1.51 overridden by the user.
1039 root 1.19
1040     =over 4
1041    
1042 root 1.26 =item 26 (perl-object, L<http://cbor.schmorp.de/perl-object>)
1043 root 1.19
1044 root 1.23 These tags are automatically created (and decoded) for serialisable
1045     objects using the C<FREEZE/THAW> methods (the L<Types::Serialier> object
1046     serialisation protocol). See L<OBJECT SERIALISATION> for details.
1047 root 1.19
1048 root 1.45 =item 28, 29 (shareable, sharedref, L<http://cbor.schmorp.de/value-sharing>)
1049 root 1.19
1050 root 1.31 These tags are automatically decoded when encountered (and they do not
1051     result in a cyclic data structure, see C<allow_cycles>), resulting in
1052 root 1.19 shared values in the decoded object. They are only encoded, however, when
1053 root 1.31 C<allow_sharing> is enabled.
1054    
1055     Not all shared values can be successfully decoded: values that reference
1056     themselves will I<currently> decode as C<undef> (this is not the same
1057     as a reference pointing to itself, which will be represented as a value
1058     that contains an indirect reference to itself - these will be decoded
1059     properly).
1060    
1061     Note that considerably more shared value data structures can be decoded
1062     than will be encoded - currently, only values pointed to by references
1063     will be shared, others will not. While non-reference shared values can be
1064     generated in Perl with some effort, they were considered too unimportant
1065     to be supported in the encoder. The decoder, however, will decode these
1066     values as shared values.
1067 root 1.19
1068 root 1.45 =item 256, 25 (stringref-namespace, stringref, L<http://cbor.schmorp.de/stringref>)
1069 root 1.21
1070     These tags are automatically decoded when encountered. They are only
1071 root 1.25 encoded, however, when C<pack_strings> is enabled.
1072 root 1.21
1073 root 1.19 =item 22098 (indirection, L<http://cbor.schmorp.de/indirection>)
1074    
1075     This tag is automatically generated when a reference are encountered (with
1076 root 1.51 the exception of hash and array references). It is converted to a reference
1077 root 1.19 when decoding.
1078    
1079     =item 55799 (self-describe CBOR, RFC 7049)
1080    
1081     This value is not generated on encoding (unless explicitly requested by
1082     the user), and is simply ignored when decoding.
1083    
1084     =back
1085    
1086 root 1.24 =head2 NON-ENFORCED TAGS
1087 root 1.22
1088     These tags have default filters provided when decoding. Their handling can
1089 root 1.51 be overridden by changing the C<%CBOR::XS::FILTER> entry for the tag, or by
1090 root 1.24 providing a custom C<filter> callback when decoding.
1091 root 1.22
1092     When they result in decoding into a specific Perl class, the module
1093     usually provides a corresponding C<TO_CBOR> method as well.
1094    
1095     When any of these need to load additional modules that are not part of the
1096     perl core distribution (e.g. L<URI>), it is (currently) up to the user to
1097     provide these modules. The decoding usually fails with an exception if the
1098     required module cannot be loaded.
1099    
1100     =over 4
1101    
1102 root 1.35 =item 0, 1 (date/time string, seconds since the epoch)
1103    
1104     These tags are decoded into L<Time::Piece> objects. The corresponding
1105     C<Time::Piece::TO_CBOR> method always encodes into tag 1 values currently.
1106    
1107     The L<Time::Piece> API is generally surprisingly bad, and fractional
1108     seconds are only accidentally kept intact, so watch out. On the plus side,
1109     the module comes with perl since 5.10, which has to count for something.
1110    
1111 root 1.22 =item 2, 3 (positive/negative bignum)
1112    
1113     These tags are decoded into L<Math::BigInt> objects. The corresponding
1114     C<Math::BigInt::TO_CBOR> method encodes "small" bigints into normal CBOR
1115     integers, and others into positive/negative CBOR bignums.
1116    
1117 root 1.55 =item 4, 5, 264, 265 (decimal fraction/bigfloat)
1118 root 1.22
1119     Both decimal fractions and bigfloats are decoded into L<Math::BigFloat>
1120     objects. The corresponding C<Math::BigFloat::TO_CBOR> method I<always>
1121 root 1.55 encodes into a decimal fraction (either tag 4 or 264).
1122 root 1.22
1123 root 1.55 NaN and infinities are not encoded properly, as they cannot be represented
1124     in CBOR.
1125 root 1.22
1126 root 1.55 See L<BIGNUM SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS> for more info.
1127 root 1.22
1128 root 1.58 =item 30 (rational numbers)
1129    
1130     These tags are decoded into L<Math::BigRat> objects. The corresponding
1131     C<Math::BigRat::TO_CBOR> method encodes rational numbers with denominator
1132     C<1> via their numerator only, i.e., they become normal integers or
1133     C<bignums>.
1134    
1135     See L<BIGNUM SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS> for more info.
1136    
1137 root 1.22 =item 21, 22, 23 (expected later JSON conversion)
1138    
1139     CBOR::XS is not a CBOR-to-JSON converter, and will simply ignore these
1140     tags.
1141    
1142     =item 32 (URI)
1143    
1144     These objects decode into L<URI> objects. The corresponding
1145     C<URI::TO_CBOR> method again results in a CBOR URI value.
1146    
1147     =back
1148    
1149     =cut
1150    
1151 root 1.7 =head1 CBOR and JSON
1152 root 1.1
1153 root 1.4 CBOR is supposed to implement a superset of the JSON data model, and is,
1154     with some coercion, able to represent all JSON texts (something that other
1155     "binary JSON" formats such as BSON generally do not support).
1156    
1157     CBOR implements some extra hints and support for JSON interoperability,
1158     and the spec offers further guidance for conversion between CBOR and
1159     JSON. None of this is currently implemented in CBOR, and the guidelines
1160     in the spec do not result in correct round-tripping of data. If JSON
1161     interoperability is improved in the future, then the goal will be to
1162     ensure that decoded JSON data will round-trip encoding and decoding to
1163     CBOR intact.
1164 root 1.1
1165    
1166     =head1 SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS
1167    
1168 root 1.65 Tl;dr... if you want to decode or encode CBOR from untrusted sources, you
1169 root 1.69 should start with a coder object created via C<new_safe> (which implements
1170     the mitigations explained below):
1171 root 1.65
1172     my $coder = CBOR::XS->new_safe;
1173 root 1.1
1174 root 1.65 my $data = $coder->decode ($cbor_text);
1175     my $cbor = $coder->encode ($data);
1176    
1177     Longer version: When you are using CBOR in a protocol, talking to
1178     untrusted potentially hostile creatures requires some thought:
1179    
1180     =over 4
1181    
1182     =item Security of the CBOR decoder itself
1183    
1184     First and foremost, your CBOR decoder should be secure, that is, should
1185     not have any buffer overflows or similar bugs that could potentially be
1186     exploited. Obviously, this module should ensure that and I am trying hard
1187     on making that true, but you never know.
1188    
1189     =item CBOR::XS can invoke almost arbitrary callbacks during decoding
1190    
1191     CBOR::XS supports object serialisation - decoding CBOR can cause calls
1192     to I<any> C<THAW> method in I<any> package that exists in your process
1193     (that is, CBOR::XS will not try to load modules, but any existing C<THAW>
1194     method or function can be called, so they all have to be secure).
1195    
1196     Less obviously, it will also invoke C<TO_CBOR> and C<FREEZE> methods -
1197     even if all your C<THAW> methods are secure, encoding data structures from
1198     untrusted sources can invoke those and trigger bugs in those.
1199    
1200     So, if you are not sure about the security of all the modules you
1201     have loaded (you shouldn't), you should disable this part using
1202 root 1.69 C<forbid_objects> or using C<new_safe>.
1203 root 1.65
1204     =item CBOR can be extended with tags that call library code
1205    
1206     CBOR can be extended with tags, and C<CBOR::XS> has a registry of
1207     conversion functions for many existing tags that can be extended via
1208     third-party modules (see the C<filter> method).
1209    
1210     If you don't trust these, you should configure the "safe" filter function,
1211 root 1.69 C<CBOR::XS::safe_filter> (C<new_safe> does this), which by default only
1212     includes conversion functions that are considered "safe" by the author
1213     (but again, they can be extended by third party modules).
1214 root 1.65
1215     Depending on your level of paranoia, you can use the "safe" filter:
1216    
1217     $cbor->filter (\&CBOR::XS::safe_filter);
1218    
1219     ... your own filter...
1220    
1221     $cbor->filter (sub { ... do your stuffs here ... });
1222    
1223     ... or even no filter at all, disabling all tag decoding:
1224    
1225     $cbor->filter (sub { });
1226    
1227     This is never a problem for encoding, as the tag mechanism only exists in
1228     CBOR texts.
1229    
1230     =item Resource-starving attacks: object memory usage
1231    
1232     You need to avoid resource-starving attacks. That means you should limit
1233     the size of CBOR data you accept, or make sure then when your resources
1234     run out, that's just fine (e.g. by using a separate process that can
1235     crash safely). The size of a CBOR string in octets is usually a good
1236 root 1.1 indication of the size of the resources required to decode it into a Perl
1237 root 1.65 structure. While CBOR::XS can check the size of the CBOR text (using
1238 root 1.69 C<max_size> - done by C<new_safe>), it might be too late when you already
1239     have it in memory, so you might want to check the size before you accept
1240     the string.
1241 root 1.65
1242     As for encoding, it is possible to construct data structures that are
1243     relatively small but result in large CBOR texts (for example by having an
1244     array full of references to the same big data structure, which will all be
1245     deep-cloned during encoding by default). This is rarely an actual issue
1246     (and the worst case is still just running out of memory), but you can
1247     reduce this risk by using C<allow_sharing>.
1248    
1249     =item Resource-starving attacks: stack overflows
1250    
1251     CBOR::XS recurses using the C stack when decoding objects and arrays. The
1252     C stack is a limited resource: for instance, on my amd64 machine with 8MB
1253     of stack size I can decode around 180k nested arrays but only 14k nested
1254     CBOR objects (due to perl itself recursing deeply on croak to free the
1255     temporary). If that is exceeded, the program crashes. To be conservative,
1256     the default nesting limit is set to 512. If your process has a smaller
1257     stack, you should adjust this setting accordingly with the C<max_depth>
1258     method.
1259    
1260     =item Resource-starving attacks: CPU en-/decoding complexity
1261    
1262     CBOR::XS will use the L<Math::BigInt>, L<Math::BigFloat> and
1263 root 1.69 L<Math::BigRat> libraries to represent encode/decode bignums. These can be
1264     very slow (as in, centuries of CPU time) and can even crash your program
1265     (and are generally not very trustworthy). See the next section on bignum
1266     security for details.
1267 root 1.65
1268     =item Data breaches: leaking information in error messages
1269    
1270     CBOR::XS might leak contents of your Perl data structures in its error
1271     messages, so when you serialise sensitive information you might want to
1272     make sure that exceptions thrown by CBOR::XS will not end up in front of
1273     untrusted eyes.
1274    
1275     =item Something else...
1276 root 1.1
1277     Something else could bomb you, too, that I forgot to think of. In that
1278     case, you get to keep the pieces. I am always open for hints, though...
1279    
1280 root 1.65 =back
1281 root 1.1
1282 root 1.55
1283     =head1 BIGNUM SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS
1284    
1285     CBOR::XS provides a C<TO_CBOR> method for both L<Math::BigInt> and
1286     L<Math::BigFloat> that tries to encode the number in the simplest possible
1287     way, that is, either a CBOR integer, a CBOR bigint/decimal fraction (tag
1288 root 1.58 4) or an arbitrary-exponent decimal fraction (tag 264). Rational numbers
1289     (L<Math::BigRat>, tag 30) can also contain bignums as members.
1290 root 1.55
1291 root 1.58 CBOR::XS will also understand base-2 bigfloat or arbitrary-exponent
1292     bigfloats (tags 5 and 265), but it will never generate these on its own.
1293 root 1.55
1294     Using the built-in L<Math::BigInt::Calc> support, encoding and decoding
1295     decimal fractions is generally fast. Decoding bigints can be slow for very
1296 root 1.58 big numbers (tens of thousands of digits, something that could potentially
1297     be caught by limiting the size of CBOR texts), and decoding bigfloats or
1298     arbitrary-exponent bigfloats can be I<extremely> slow (minutes, decades)
1299     for large exponents (roughly 40 bit and longer).
1300 root 1.55
1301     Additionally, L<Math::BigInt> can take advantage of other bignum
1302 root 1.58 libraries, such as L<Math::GMP>, which cannot handle big floats with large
1303     exponents, and might simply abort or crash your program, due to their code
1304     quality.
1305 root 1.55
1306     This can be a concern if you want to parse untrusted CBOR. If it is, you
1307 root 1.58 might want to disable decoding of tag 2 (bigint) and 3 (negative bigint)
1308     types. You should also disable types 5 and 265, as these can be slow even
1309     without bigints.
1310    
1311     Disabling bigints will also partially or fully disable types that rely on
1312     them, e.g. rational numbers that use bignums.
1313 root 1.55
1314    
1315 root 1.1 =head1 CBOR IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
1316    
1317     This section contains some random implementation notes. They do not
1318     describe guaranteed behaviour, but merely behaviour as-is implemented
1319     right now.
1320    
1321     64 bit integers are only properly decoded when Perl was built with 64 bit
1322     support.
1323    
1324     Strings and arrays are encoded with a definite length. Hashes as well,
1325     unless they are tied (or otherwise magical).
1326    
1327     Only the double data type is supported for NV data types - when Perl uses
1328     long double to represent floating point values, they might not be encoded
1329     properly. Half precision types are accepted, but not encoded.
1330    
1331     Strict mode and canonical mode are not implemented.
1332    
1333    
1334 root 1.30 =head1 LIMITATIONS ON PERLS WITHOUT 64-BIT INTEGER SUPPORT
1335    
1336     On perls that were built without 64 bit integer support (these are rare
1337 root 1.43 nowadays, even on 32 bit architectures, as all major Perl distributions
1338     are built with 64 bit integer support), support for any kind of 64 bit
1339 root 1.71 value in CBOR is very limited - most likely, these 64 bit values will
1340 root 1.30 be truncated, corrupted, or otherwise not decoded correctly. This also
1341 root 1.71 includes string, float, array and map sizes that are stored as 64 bit
1342     integers.
1343 root 1.30
1344    
1345 root 1.1 =head1 THREADS
1346    
1347     This module is I<not> guaranteed to be thread safe and there are no
1348     plans to change this until Perl gets thread support (as opposed to the
1349     horribly slow so-called "threads" which are simply slow and bloated
1350     process simulations - use fork, it's I<much> faster, cheaper, better).
1351    
1352     (It might actually work, but you have been warned).
1353    
1354    
1355     =head1 BUGS
1356    
1357     While the goal of this module is to be correct, that unfortunately does
1358     not mean it's bug-free, only that I think its design is bug-free. If you
1359     keep reporting bugs they will be fixed swiftly, though.
1360    
1361     Please refrain from using rt.cpan.org or any other bug reporting
1362     service. I put the contact address into my modules for a reason.
1363    
1364     =cut
1365    
1366 root 1.65 # clumsy and slow hv_store-in-hash helper function
1367 root 1.64 sub _hv_store {
1368     $_[0]{$_[1]} = $_[2];
1369     }
1370    
1371 root 1.22 our %FILTER = (
1372 root 1.35 0 => sub { # rfc4287 datetime, utf-8
1373     require Time::Piece;
1374     # Time::Piece::Strptime uses the "incredibly flexible date parsing routine"
1375     # from FreeBSD, which can't parse ISO 8601, RFC3339, RFC4287 or much of anything
1376     # else either. Whats incredibe over standard strptime totally escapes me.
1377     # doesn't do fractional times, either. sigh.
1378 root 1.36 # In fact, it's all a lie, it uses whatever strptime it wants, and of course,
1379 root 1.47 # they are all incompatible. The openbsd one simply ignores %z (but according to the
1380 root 1.37 # docs, it would be much more incredibly flexible indeed. If it worked, that is.).
1381 root 1.35 scalar eval {
1382     my $s = $_[1];
1383    
1384     $s =~ s/Z$/+00:00/;
1385 root 1.36 $s =~ s/(\.[0-9]+)?([+-][0-9][0-9]):([0-9][0-9])$//
1386 root 1.35 or die;
1387    
1388 root 1.36 my $b = $1 - ($2 * 60 + $3) * 60; # fractional part + offset. hopefully
1389     my $d = Time::Piece->strptime ($s, "%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S");
1390 root 1.35
1391 root 1.36 Time::Piece::gmtime ($d->epoch + $b)
1392 root 1.35 } || die "corrupted CBOR date/time string ($_[0])";
1393     },
1394    
1395     1 => sub { # seconds since the epoch, possibly fractional
1396     require Time::Piece;
1397     scalar Time::Piece::gmtime (pop)
1398     },
1399 root 1.22
1400     2 => sub { # pos bigint
1401     require Math::BigInt;
1402 root 1.57 Math::BigInt->new ("0x" . unpack "H*", pop)
1403 root 1.22 },
1404    
1405     3 => sub { # neg bigint
1406     require Math::BigInt;
1407 root 1.57 -Math::BigInt->new ("0x" . unpack "H*", pop)
1408 root 1.22 },
1409    
1410     4 => sub { # decimal fraction, array
1411     require Math::BigFloat;
1412     Math::BigFloat->new ($_[1][1] . "E" . $_[1][0])
1413     },
1414    
1415 root 1.58 264 => sub { # decimal fraction with arbitrary exponent
1416     require Math::BigFloat;
1417     Math::BigFloat->new ($_[1][1] . "E" . $_[1][0])
1418     },
1419    
1420 root 1.22 5 => sub { # bigfloat, array
1421     require Math::BigFloat;
1422 root 1.50 scalar Math::BigFloat->new ($_[1][1]) * Math::BigFloat->new (2)->bpow ($_[1][0])
1423 root 1.22 },
1424    
1425 root 1.58 265 => sub { # bigfloat with arbitrary exponent
1426     require Math::BigFloat;
1427     scalar Math::BigFloat->new ($_[1][1]) * Math::BigFloat->new (2)->bpow ($_[1][0])
1428     },
1429    
1430     30 => sub { # rational number
1431     require Math::BigRat;
1432     Math::BigRat->new ("$_[1][0]/$_[1][1]") # separate parameters only work in recent versons
1433     },
1434    
1435 root 1.22 21 => sub { pop }, # expected conversion to base64url encoding
1436     22 => sub { pop }, # expected conversion to base64 encoding
1437     23 => sub { pop }, # expected conversion to base16 encoding
1438    
1439     # 24 # embedded cbor, byte string
1440    
1441     32 => sub {
1442     require URI;
1443     URI->new (pop)
1444     },
1445    
1446     # 33 # base64url rfc4648, utf-8
1447     # 34 # base64 rfc46484, utf-8
1448     # 35 # regex pcre/ecma262, utf-8
1449     # 36 # mime message rfc2045, utf-8
1450     );
1451    
1452 root 1.65 sub default_filter {
1453 root 1.22 &{ $FILTER{$_[0]} or return }
1454     }
1455    
1456 root 1.65 our %SAFE_FILTER = map { $_ => $FILTER{$_} } 0, 1, 21, 22, 23, 32;
1457    
1458     sub safe_filter {
1459     &{ $SAFE_FILTER{$_[0]} or return }
1460     }
1461    
1462 root 1.22 sub URI::TO_CBOR {
1463     my $uri = $_[0]->as_string;
1464     utf8::upgrade $uri;
1465 root 1.35 tag 32, $uri
1466 root 1.22 }
1467    
1468     sub Math::BigInt::TO_CBOR {
1469 root 1.55 if (-2147483648 <= $_[0] && $_[0] <= 2147483647) {
1470 root 1.22 $_[0]->numify
1471     } else {
1472     my $hex = substr $_[0]->as_hex, 2;
1473     $hex = "0$hex" if 1 & length $hex; # sigh
1474 root 1.35 tag $_[0] >= 0 ? 2 : 3, pack "H*", $hex
1475 root 1.22 }
1476     }
1477    
1478     sub Math::BigFloat::TO_CBOR {
1479     my ($m, $e) = $_[0]->parts;
1480 root 1.55
1481     -9223372036854775808 <= $e && $e <= 18446744073709551615
1482     ? tag 4, [$e->numify, $m]
1483     : tag 264, [$e, $m]
1484 root 1.35 }
1485    
1486 root 1.58 sub Math::BigRat::TO_CBOR {
1487     my ($n, $d) = $_[0]->parts;
1488    
1489 root 1.60 # older versions of BigRat need *1, as they not always return numbers
1490 root 1.59
1491     $d*1 == 1
1492     ? $n*1
1493     : tag 30, [$n*1, $d*1]
1494 root 1.58 }
1495    
1496 root 1.35 sub Time::Piece::TO_CBOR {
1497 root 1.40 tag 1, 0 + $_[0]->epoch
1498 root 1.22 }
1499    
1500 root 1.1 XSLoader::load "CBOR::XS", $VERSION;
1501    
1502     =head1 SEE ALSO
1503    
1504     The L<JSON> and L<JSON::XS> modules that do similar, but human-readable,
1505     serialisation.
1506    
1507 root 1.6 The L<Types::Serialiser> module provides the data model for true, false
1508     and error values.
1509    
1510 root 1.1 =head1 AUTHOR
1511    
1512     Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>
1513     http://home.schmorp.de/
1514    
1515     =cut
1516    
1517 root 1.6 1
1518