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Revision: 1.93
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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 1.89 our $VERSION = 1.87;
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 root 1.88 that have a reference counter larger 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 1.89 This option does not affect C<encode> in any way - shared values and
251     references will always be encoded properly if present.
252    
253     =item $cbor = $cbor->allow_weak_cycles ([$enable])
254    
255     =item $enabled = $cbor->get_allow_weak_cycles
256    
257     This works like C<allow_cycles> in that it allows the resulting data
258     structures to contain cycles, but unlike C<allow_cycles>, those cyclic
259     rreferences will be weak. That means that code that recurrsively walks
260     the data structure must be prepared with cycles, but at least not special
261     precautions must be implemented to free these data structures.
262    
263     Only those references leading to actual cycles will be weakened - other
264     references, e.g. when the same hash or arrray is referenced multiple times
265     in an arrray, will be normal references.
266 root 1.41
267 root 1.31 This option does not affect C<encode> in any way - shared values and
268 root 1.42 references will always be encoded properly if present.
269 root 1.31
270 root 1.65 =item $cbor = $cbor->forbid_objects ([$enable])
271    
272     =item $enabled = $cbor->get_forbid_objects
273    
274     Disables the use of the object serialiser protocol.
275    
276     If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then C<encode> will will throw an
277     exception when it encounters perl objects that would be encoded using the
278     perl-object tag (26). When C<decode> encounters such tags, it will fall
279     back to the general filter/tagged logic as if this were an unknown tag (by
280     default resulting in a C<CBOR::XC::Tagged> object).
281    
282     If C<$enable> is false (the default), then C<encode> will use the
283     L<Types::Serialiser> object serialisation protocol to serialise objects
284     into perl-object tags, and C<decode> will do the same to decode such tags.
285    
286     See L<SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS>, below, for more info on why forbidding this
287     protocol can be useful.
288    
289 root 1.25 =item $cbor = $cbor->pack_strings ([$enable])
290 root 1.21
291 root 1.25 =item $enabled = $cbor->get_pack_strings
292 root 1.21
293     If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then C<encode> will try not to encode
294     the same string twice, but will instead encode a reference to the string
295 root 1.25 instead. Depending on your data format, this can save a lot of space, but
296 root 1.21 also results in a very large runtime overhead (expect encoding times to be
297     2-4 times as high as without).
298    
299     It is recommended to leave it off unless you know your
300     communications partner supports the stringref extension to CBOR
301 root 1.26 (L<http://cbor.schmorp.de/stringref>), as without decoder support, the
302 root 1.25 resulting data structure might not be usable.
303 root 1.21
304 root 1.25 If C<$enable> is false (the default), then C<encode> will encode strings
305     the standard CBOR way.
306 root 1.21
307     This option does not affect C<decode> in any way - string references will
308     always be decoded properly if present.
309 root 1.19
310 root 1.52 =item $cbor = $cbor->text_keys ([$enable])
311    
312     =item $enabled = $cbor->get_text_keys
313    
314     If C<$enabled> is true (or missing), then C<encode> will encode all
315     perl hash keys as CBOR text strings/UTF-8 string, upgrading them as needed.
316    
317     If C<$enable> is false (the default), then C<encode> will encode hash keys
318     normally - upgraded perl strings (strings internally encoded as UTF-8) as
319     CBOR text strings, and downgraded perl strings as CBOR byte strings.
320    
321     This option does not affect C<decode> in any way.
322    
323     This option is useful for interoperability with CBOR decoders that don't
324     treat byte strings as a form of text. It is especially useful as Perl
325     gives very little control over hash keys.
326    
327     Enabling this option can be slow, as all downgraded hash keys that are
328     encoded need to be scanned and converted to UTF-8.
329    
330     =item $cbor = $cbor->text_strings ([$enable])
331    
332     =item $enabled = $cbor->get_text_strings
333    
334     This option works similar to C<text_keys>, above, but works on all strings
335     (including hash keys), so C<text_keys> has no further effect after
336     enabling C<text_strings>.
337    
338     If C<$enabled> is true (or missing), then C<encode> will encode all perl
339     strings as CBOR text strings/UTF-8 strings, upgrading them as needed.
340    
341     If C<$enable> is false (the default), then C<encode> will encode strings
342     normally (but see C<text_keys>) - upgraded perl strings (strings
343     internally encoded as UTF-8) as CBOR text strings, and downgraded perl
344     strings as CBOR byte strings.
345    
346     This option does not affect C<decode> in any way.
347    
348     This option has similar advantages and disadvantages as C<text_keys>. In
349 root 1.71 addition, this option effectively removes the ability to automatically
350     encode byte strings, which might break some C<FREEZE> and C<TO_CBOR>
351     methods that rely on this.
352    
353     A workaround is to use explicit type casts, which are unaffected by this option.
354 root 1.52
355 root 1.33 =item $cbor = $cbor->validate_utf8 ([$enable])
356    
357     =item $enabled = $cbor->get_validate_utf8
358    
359     If C<$enable> is true (or missing), then C<decode> will validate that
360     elements (text strings) containing UTF-8 data in fact contain valid UTF-8
361     data (instead of blindly accepting it). This validation obviously takes
362     extra time during decoding.
363    
364     The concept of "valid UTF-8" used is perl's concept, which is a superset
365     of the official UTF-8.
366    
367     If C<$enable> is false (the default), then C<decode> will blindly accept
368     UTF-8 data, marking them as valid UTF-8 in the resulting data structure
369 root 1.51 regardless of whether that's true or not.
370 root 1.33
371     Perl isn't too happy about corrupted UTF-8 in strings, but should
372     generally not crash or do similarly evil things. Extensions might be not
373     so forgiving, so it's recommended to turn on this setting if you receive
374     untrusted CBOR.
375    
376     This option does not affect C<encode> in any way - strings that are
377     supposedly valid UTF-8 will simply be dumped into the resulting CBOR
378     string without checking whether that is, in fact, true or not.
379    
380 root 1.23 =item $cbor = $cbor->filter ([$cb->($tag, $value)])
381    
382     =item $cb_or_undef = $cbor->get_filter
383    
384 root 1.24 Sets or replaces the tagged value decoding filter (when C<$cb> is
385     specified) or clears the filter (if no argument or C<undef> is provided).
386    
387     The filter callback is called only during decoding, when a non-enforced
388     tagged value has been decoded (see L<TAG HANDLING AND EXTENSIONS> for a
389     list of enforced tags). For specific tags, it's often better to provide a
390     default converter using the C<%CBOR::XS::FILTER> hash (see below).
391    
392     The first argument is the numerical tag, the second is the (decoded) value
393     that has been tagged.
394    
395     The filter function should return either exactly one value, which will
396     replace the tagged value in the decoded data structure, or no values,
397     which will result in default handling, which currently means the decoder
398     creates a C<CBOR::XS::Tagged> object to hold the tag and the value.
399    
400     When the filter is cleared (the default state), the default filter
401 root 1.65 function, C<CBOR::XS::default_filter>, is used. This function simply
402     looks up the tag in the C<%CBOR::XS::FILTER> hash. If an entry exists
403     it must be a code reference that is called with tag and value, and is
404     responsible for decoding the value. If no entry exists, it returns no
405     values. C<CBOR::XS> provides a number of default filter functions already,
406     the the C<%CBOR::XS::FILTER> hash can be freely extended with more.
407    
408     C<CBOR::XS> additionally provides an alternative filter function that is
409     supposed to be safe to use with untrusted data (which the default filter
410     might not), called C<CBOR::XS::safe_filter>, which works the same as
411     the C<default_filter> but uses the C<%CBOR::XS::SAFE_FILTER> variable
412     instead. It is prepopulated with the tag decoding functions that are
413     deemed safe (basically the same as C<%CBOR::XS::FILTER> without all
414 root 1.91 the bignum tags), and can be extended by user code as well, although,
415 root 1.65 obviously, one should be very careful about adding decoding functions
416     here, since the expectation is that they are safe to use on untrusted
417     data, after all.
418 root 1.24
419 root 1.28 Example: decode all tags not handled internally into C<CBOR::XS::Tagged>
420 root 1.24 objects, with no other special handling (useful when working with
421     potentially "unsafe" CBOR data).
422    
423     CBOR::XS->new->filter (sub { })->decode ($cbor_data);
424    
425     Example: provide a global filter for tag 1347375694, converting the value
426     into some string form.
427    
428     $CBOR::XS::FILTER{1347375694} = sub {
429 root 1.92 my ($tag, $value) = @_;
430 root 1.24
431     "tag 1347375694 value $value"
432     };
433 root 1.23
434 root 1.65 Example: provide your own filter function that looks up tags in your own
435     hash:
436    
437     my %my_filter = (
438     998347484 => sub {
439 root 1.92 my ($tag, $value) = @_;
440 root 1.65
441     "tag 998347484 value $value"
442     };
443     );
444    
445     my $coder = CBOR::XS->new->filter (sub {
446     &{ $my_filter{$_[0]} or return }
447     });
448    
449    
450     Example: use the safe filter function (see L<SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS> for
451 root 1.90 more considerations regarding security).
452 root 1.65
453     CBOR::XS->new->filter (\&CBOR::XS::safe_filter)->decode ($cbor_data);
454    
455 root 1.1 =item $cbor_data = $cbor->encode ($perl_scalar)
456    
457     Converts the given Perl data structure (a scalar value) to its CBOR
458     representation.
459    
460     =item $perl_scalar = $cbor->decode ($cbor_data)
461    
462     The opposite of C<encode>: expects CBOR data and tries to parse it,
463     returning the resulting simple scalar or reference. Croaks on error.
464    
465     =item ($perl_scalar, $octets) = $cbor->decode_prefix ($cbor_data)
466    
467     This works like the C<decode> method, but instead of raising an exception
468     when there is trailing garbage after the CBOR string, it will silently
469     stop parsing there and return the number of characters consumed so far.
470    
471     This is useful if your CBOR texts are not delimited by an outer protocol
472     and you need to know where the first CBOR string ends amd the next one
473 root 1.70 starts - CBOR strings are self-delimited, so it is possible to concatenate
474     CBOR strings without any delimiters or size fields and recover their data.
475 root 1.1
476     CBOR::XS->new->decode_prefix ("......")
477     => ("...", 3)
478    
479     =back
480    
481 root 1.39 =head2 INCREMENTAL PARSING
482    
483 root 1.93 In some cases, there is the need for incremental parsing of CBOR
484 root 1.39 texts. While this module always has to keep both CBOR text and resulting
485 root 1.93 Perl data structure in memory at one time, it does allow you to parse
486     a CBOR stream incrementally, using a technique similar to using
487     "decode_prefix" to see if a full CBOR object is available, but is much
488     more efficient.
489 root 1.39
490     It basically works by parsing as much of a CBOR string as possible - if
491 root 1.86 the CBOR data is not complete yet, the parser will remember where it was,
492 root 1.39 to be able to restart when more data has been accumulated. Once enough
493     data is available to either decode a complete CBOR value or raise an
494     error, a real decode will be attempted.
495    
496     A typical use case would be a network protocol that consists of sending
497     and receiving CBOR-encoded messages. The solution that works with CBOR and
498     about anything else is by prepending a length to every CBOR value, so the
499     receiver knows how many octets to read. More compact (and slightly slower)
500     would be to just send CBOR values back-to-back, as C<CBOR::XS> knows where
501     a CBOR value ends, and doesn't need an explicit length.
502    
503     The following methods help with this:
504    
505     =over 4
506    
507     =item @decoded = $cbor->incr_parse ($buffer)
508    
509     This method attempts to decode exactly one CBOR value from the beginning
510     of the given C<$buffer>. The value is removed from the C<$buffer> on
511     success. When C<$buffer> doesn't contain a complete value yet, it returns
512     nothing. Finally, when the C<$buffer> doesn't start with something
513     that could ever be a valid CBOR value, it raises an exception, just as
514     C<decode> would. In the latter case the decoder state is undefined and
515     must be reset before being able to parse further.
516    
517     This method modifies the C<$buffer> in place. When no CBOR value can be
518     decoded, the decoder stores the current string offset. On the next call,
519     continues decoding at the place where it stopped before. For this to make
520     sense, the C<$buffer> must begin with the same octets as on previous
521     unsuccessful calls.
522    
523     You can call this method in scalar context, in which case it either
524     returns a decoded value or C<undef>. This makes it impossible to
525     distinguish between CBOR null values (which decode to C<undef>) and an
526     unsuccessful decode, which is often acceptable.
527    
528     =item @decoded = $cbor->incr_parse_multiple ($buffer)
529    
530     Same as C<incr_parse>, but attempts to decode as many CBOR values as
531     possible in one go, instead of at most one. Calls to C<incr_parse> and
532     C<incr_parse_multiple> can be interleaved.
533    
534     =item $cbor->incr_reset
535    
536     Resets the incremental decoder. This throws away any saved state, so that
537     subsequent calls to C<incr_parse> or C<incr_parse_multiple> start to parse
538     a new CBOR value from the beginning of the C<$buffer> again.
539    
540 root 1.61 This method can be called at any time, but it I<must> be called if you want
541 root 1.39 to change your C<$buffer> or there was a decoding error and you want to
542     reuse the C<$cbor> object for future incremental parsings.
543    
544     =back
545    
546 root 1.1
547     =head1 MAPPING
548    
549     This section describes how CBOR::XS maps Perl values to CBOR values and
550     vice versa. These mappings are designed to "do the right thing" in most
551     circumstances automatically, preserving round-tripping characteristics
552     (what you put in comes out as something equivalent).
553    
554     For the more enlightened: note that in the following descriptions,
555     lowercase I<perl> refers to the Perl interpreter, while uppercase I<Perl>
556     refers to the abstract Perl language itself.
557    
558    
559     =head2 CBOR -> PERL
560    
561     =over 4
562    
563 root 1.4 =item integers
564    
565     CBOR integers become (numeric) perl scalars. On perls without 64 bit
566     support, 64 bit integers will be truncated or otherwise corrupted.
567    
568     =item byte strings
569    
570 root 1.27 Byte strings will become octet strings in Perl (the Byte values 0..255
571 root 1.4 will simply become characters of the same value in Perl).
572    
573     =item UTF-8 strings
574    
575     UTF-8 strings in CBOR will be decoded, i.e. the UTF-8 octets will be
576     decoded into proper Unicode code points. At the moment, the validity of
577     the UTF-8 octets will not be validated - corrupt input will result in
578     corrupted Perl strings.
579    
580     =item arrays, maps
581    
582     CBOR arrays and CBOR maps will be converted into references to a Perl
583     array or hash, respectively. The keys of the map will be stringified
584     during this process.
585    
586 root 1.6 =item null
587    
588     CBOR null becomes C<undef> in Perl.
589    
590     =item true, false, undefined
591 root 1.1
592 root 1.6 These CBOR values become C<Types:Serialiser::true>,
593     C<Types:Serialiser::false> and C<Types::Serialiser::error>,
594 root 1.1 respectively. They are overloaded to act almost exactly like the numbers
595 root 1.6 C<1> and C<0> (for true and false) or to throw an exception on access (for
596     error). See the L<Types::Serialiser> manpage for details.
597    
598 root 1.23 =item tagged values
599 root 1.1
600 root 1.23 Tagged items consists of a numeric tag and another CBOR value.
601 root 1.4
602 root 1.23 See L<TAG HANDLING AND EXTENSIONS> and the description of C<< ->filter >>
603 root 1.28 for details on which tags are handled how.
604 root 1.4
605     =item anything else
606    
607     Anything else (e.g. unsupported simple values) will raise a decoding
608     error.
609 root 1.1
610     =back
611    
612    
613     =head2 PERL -> CBOR
614    
615     The mapping from Perl to CBOR is slightly more difficult, as Perl is a
616 root 1.28 typeless language. That means this module can only guess which CBOR type
617     is meant by a perl value.
618 root 1.1
619     =over 4
620    
621     =item hash references
622    
623 root 1.4 Perl hash references become CBOR maps. As there is no inherent ordering in
624     hash keys (or CBOR maps), they will usually be encoded in a pseudo-random
625 root 1.49 order. This order can be different each time a hash is encoded.
626 root 1.4
627     Currently, tied hashes will use the indefinite-length format, while normal
628     hashes will use the fixed-length format.
629 root 1.1
630     =item array references
631    
632 root 1.4 Perl array references become fixed-length CBOR arrays.
633 root 1.1
634     =item other references
635    
636 root 1.28 Other unblessed references will be represented using
637     the indirection tag extension (tag value C<22098>,
638     L<http://cbor.schmorp.de/indirection>). CBOR decoders are guaranteed
639     to be able to decode these values somehow, by either "doing the right
640     thing", decoding into a generic tagged object, simply ignoring the tag, or
641     something else.
642 root 1.4
643     =item CBOR::XS::Tagged objects
644    
645     Objects of this type must be arrays consisting of a single C<[tag, value]>
646 root 1.13 pair. The (numerical) tag will be encoded as a CBOR tag, the value will
647 root 1.28 be encoded as appropriate for the value. You must use C<CBOR::XS::tag> to
648 root 1.13 create such objects.
649 root 1.1
650 root 1.6 =item Types::Serialiser::true, Types::Serialiser::false, Types::Serialiser::error
651 root 1.1
652 root 1.6 These special values become CBOR true, CBOR false and CBOR undefined
653 root 1.87 values, respectively.
654 root 1.1
655 root 1.7 =item other blessed objects
656 root 1.1
657 root 1.7 Other blessed objects are serialised via C<TO_CBOR> or C<FREEZE>. See
658 root 1.23 L<TAG HANDLING AND EXTENSIONS> for specific classes handled by this
659     module, and L<OBJECT SERIALISATION> for generic object serialisation.
660 root 1.1
661     =item simple scalars
662    
663     Simple Perl scalars (any scalar that is not a reference) are the most
664     difficult objects to encode: CBOR::XS will encode undefined scalars as
665 root 1.4 CBOR null values, scalars that have last been used in a string context
666 root 1.1 before encoding as CBOR strings, and anything else as number value:
667    
668     # dump as number
669     encode_cbor [2] # yields [2]
670     encode_cbor [-3.0e17] # yields [-3e+17]
671     my $value = 5; encode_cbor [$value] # yields [5]
672    
673 root 1.27 # used as string, so dump as string (either byte or text)
674 root 1.1 print $value;
675     encode_cbor [$value] # yields ["5"]
676    
677     # undef becomes null
678     encode_cbor [undef] # yields [null]
679    
680     You can force the type to be a CBOR string by stringifying it:
681    
682     my $x = 3.1; # some variable containing a number
683     "$x"; # stringified
684     $x .= ""; # another, more awkward way to stringify
685     print $x; # perl does it for you, too, quite often
686    
687 root 1.53 You can force whether a string is encoded as byte or text string by using
688 root 1.71 C<utf8::upgrade> and C<utf8::downgrade> (if C<text_strings> is disabled).
689 root 1.27
690     utf8::upgrade $x; # encode $x as text string
691     utf8::downgrade $x; # encode $x as byte string
692    
693 root 1.71 More options are available, see L<TYPE CASTS>, below, and the C<text_keys>
694     and C<text_strings> options.
695    
696 root 1.27 Perl doesn't define what operations up- and downgrade strings, so if the
697     difference between byte and text is important, you should up- or downgrade
698 root 1.53 your string as late as possible before encoding. You can also force the
699     use of CBOR text strings by using C<text_keys> or C<text_strings>.
700 root 1.27
701 root 1.1 You can force the type to be a CBOR number by numifying it:
702    
703     my $x = "3"; # some variable containing a string
704     $x += 0; # numify it, ensuring it will be dumped as a number
705     $x *= 1; # same thing, the choice is yours.
706    
707     You can not currently force the type in other, less obscure, ways. Tell me
708     if you need this capability (but don't forget to explain why it's needed
709     :).
710    
711 root 1.4 Perl values that seem to be integers generally use the shortest possible
712     representation. Floating-point values will use either the IEEE single
713     format if possible without loss of precision, otherwise the IEEE double
714     format will be used. Perls that use formats other than IEEE double to
715     represent numerical values are supported, but might suffer loss of
716     precision.
717 root 1.1
718     =back
719    
720 root 1.71 =head2 TYPE CASTS
721    
722     B<EXPERIMENTAL>: As an experimental extension, C<CBOR::XS> allows you to
723 root 1.81 force specific CBOR types to be used when encoding. That allows you to
724 root 1.71 encode types not normally accessible (e.g. half floats) as well as force
725     string types even when C<text_strings> is in effect.
726    
727     Type forcing is done by calling a special "cast" function which keeps a
728     copy of the value and returns a new value that can be handed over to any
729     CBOR encoder function.
730    
731 root 1.79 The following casts are currently available (all of which are unary
732     operators, that is, have a prototype of C<$>):
733 root 1.71
734     =over
735    
736 root 1.72 =item CBOR::XS::as_int $value
737    
738     Forces the value to be encoded as some form of (basic, not bignum) integer
739     type.
740    
741 root 1.71 =item CBOR::XS::as_text $value
742    
743     Forces the value to be encoded as (UTF-8) text values.
744    
745     =item CBOR::XS::as_bytes $value
746    
747     Forces the value to be encoded as a (binary) string value.
748    
749 root 1.77 Example: encode a perl string as binary even though C<text_strings> is in
750     effect.
751    
752     CBOR::XS->new->text_strings->encode ([4, "text", CBOR::XS::bytes "bytevalue"]);
753    
754 root 1.75 =item CBOR::XS::as_bool $value
755    
756     Converts a Perl boolean (which can be any kind of scalar) into a CBOR
757 root 1.76 boolean. Strictly the same, but shorter to write, than:
758 root 1.75
759     $value ? Types::Serialiser::true : Types::Serialiser::false
760    
761 root 1.71 =item CBOR::XS::as_float16 $value
762    
763     Forces half-float (IEEE 754 binary16) encoding of the given value.
764    
765     =item CBOR::XS::as_float32 $value
766    
767     Forces single-float (IEEE 754 binary32) encoding of the given value.
768    
769     =item CBOR::XS::as_float64 $value
770    
771     Forces double-float (IEEE 754 binary64) encoding of the given value.
772    
773 root 1.77 =item CBOR::XS::as_cbor $cbor_text
774 root 1.71
775 root 1.81 Not a type cast per-se, this type cast forces the argument to be encoded
776 root 1.71 as-is. This can be used to embed pre-encoded CBOR data.
777    
778     Note that no checking on the validity of the C<$cbor_text> is done - it's
779     the callers responsibility to correctly encode values.
780    
781 root 1.77 =item CBOR::XS::as_map [key => value...]
782    
783     Treat the array reference as key value pairs and output a CBOR map. This
784     allows you to generate CBOR maps with arbitrary key types (or, if you
785 root 1.80 don't care about semantics, duplicate keys or pairs in a custom order),
786 root 1.77 which is otherwise hard to do with Perl.
787    
788     The single argument must be an array reference with an even number of
789     elements.
790    
791 root 1.80 Note that only the reference to the array is copied, the array itself is
792 root 1.81 not. Modifications done to the array before calling an encoding function
793 root 1.80 will be reflected in the encoded output.
794    
795 root 1.77 Example: encode a CBOR map with a string and an integer as keys.
796 root 1.71
797 root 1.77 encode_cbor CBOR::XS::as_map [string => "value", 5 => "value"]
798 root 1.71
799 root 1.77 =back
800 root 1.71
801     =cut
802    
803 root 1.74 sub CBOR::XS::as_cbor ($) { bless [$_[0], 0, undef], CBOR::XS::Tagged:: }
804     sub CBOR::XS::as_int ($) { bless [$_[0], 1, undef], CBOR::XS::Tagged:: }
805 root 1.72 sub CBOR::XS::as_bytes ($) { bless [$_[0], 2, undef], CBOR::XS::Tagged:: }
806     sub CBOR::XS::as_text ($) { bless [$_[0], 3, undef], CBOR::XS::Tagged:: }
807     sub CBOR::XS::as_float16 ($) { bless [$_[0], 4, undef], CBOR::XS::Tagged:: }
808     sub CBOR::XS::as_float32 ($) { bless [$_[0], 5, undef], CBOR::XS::Tagged:: }
809     sub CBOR::XS::as_float64 ($) { bless [$_[0], 6, undef], CBOR::XS::Tagged:: }
810 root 1.71
811 root 1.76 sub CBOR::XS::as_bool ($) { $_[0] ? $Types::Serialiser::true : $Types::Serialiser::false }
812 root 1.75
813 root 1.77 sub CBOR::XS::as_map ($) {
814     ARRAY:: eq ref $_[0]
815     and $#{ $_[0] } & 1
816 root 1.78 or do { require Carp; Carp::croak ("CBOR::XS::as_map only acepts array references with an even number of elements, caught") };
817 root 1.77
818     bless [$_[0], 7, undef], CBOR::XS::Tagged::
819     }
820    
821 root 1.7 =head2 OBJECT SERIALISATION
822    
823 root 1.29 This module implements both a CBOR-specific and the generic
824     L<Types::Serialier> object serialisation protocol. The following
825     subsections explain both methods.
826    
827     =head3 ENCODING
828    
829 root 1.7 This module knows two way to serialise a Perl object: The CBOR-specific
830     way, and the generic way.
831    
832 root 1.29 Whenever the encoder encounters a Perl object that it cannot serialise
833 root 1.7 directly (most of them), it will first look up the C<TO_CBOR> method on
834     it.
835    
836     If it has a C<TO_CBOR> method, it will call it with the object as only
837     argument, and expects exactly one return value, which it will then
838     substitute and encode it in the place of the object.
839    
840     Otherwise, it will look up the C<FREEZE> method. If it exists, it will
841     call it with the object as first argument, and the constant string C<CBOR>
842     as the second argument, to distinguish it from other serialisers.
843    
844     The C<FREEZE> method can return any number of values (i.e. zero or
845     more). These will be encoded as CBOR perl object, together with the
846     classname.
847    
848 root 1.29 These methods I<MUST NOT> change the data structure that is being
849     serialised. Failure to comply to this can result in memory corruption -
850     and worse.
851    
852 root 1.7 If an object supports neither C<TO_CBOR> nor C<FREEZE>, encoding will fail
853     with an error.
854    
855 root 1.29 =head3 DECODING
856    
857     Objects encoded via C<TO_CBOR> cannot (normally) be automatically decoded,
858     but objects encoded via C<FREEZE> can be decoded using the following
859     protocol:
860 root 1.7
861     When an encoded CBOR perl object is encountered by the decoder, it will
862     look up the C<THAW> method, by using the stored classname, and will fail
863     if the method cannot be found.
864    
865     After the lookup it will call the C<THAW> method with the stored classname
866     as first argument, the constant string C<CBOR> as second argument, and all
867     values returned by C<FREEZE> as remaining arguments.
868    
869 root 1.29 =head3 EXAMPLES
870 root 1.7
871     Here is an example C<TO_CBOR> method:
872    
873     sub My::Object::TO_CBOR {
874     my ($obj) = @_;
875    
876     ["this is a serialised My::Object object", $obj->{id}]
877     }
878    
879     When a C<My::Object> is encoded to CBOR, it will instead encode a simple
880     array with two members: a string, and the "object id". Decoding this CBOR
881     string will yield a normal perl array reference in place of the object.
882    
883     A more useful and practical example would be a serialisation method for
884     the URI module. CBOR has a custom tag value for URIs, namely 32:
885    
886     sub URI::TO_CBOR {
887     my ($self) = @_;
888     my $uri = "$self"; # stringify uri
889     utf8::upgrade $uri; # make sure it will be encoded as UTF-8 string
890 root 1.28 CBOR::XS::tag 32, "$_[0]"
891 root 1.7 }
892    
893     This will encode URIs as a UTF-8 string with tag 32, which indicates an
894     URI.
895    
896     Decoding such an URI will not (currently) give you an URI object, but
897     instead a CBOR::XS::Tagged object with tag number 32 and the string -
898     exactly what was returned by C<TO_CBOR>.
899    
900     To serialise an object so it can automatically be deserialised, you need
901     to use C<FREEZE> and C<THAW>. To take the URI module as example, this
902     would be a possible implementation:
903    
904     sub URI::FREEZE {
905     my ($self, $serialiser) = @_;
906     "$self" # encode url string
907     }
908    
909     sub URI::THAW {
910     my ($class, $serialiser, $uri) = @_;
911     $class->new ($uri)
912     }
913    
914     Unlike C<TO_CBOR>, multiple values can be returned by C<FREEZE>. For
915     example, a C<FREEZE> method that returns "type", "id" and "variant" values
916     would cause an invocation of C<THAW> with 5 arguments:
917    
918     sub My::Object::FREEZE {
919     my ($self, $serialiser) = @_;
920    
921     ($self->{type}, $self->{id}, $self->{variant})
922     }
923    
924     sub My::Object::THAW {
925     my ($class, $serialiser, $type, $id, $variant) = @_;
926    
927     $class-<new (type => $type, id => $id, variant => $variant)
928     }
929    
930 root 1.1
931 root 1.7 =head1 MAGIC HEADER
932 root 1.3
933     There is no way to distinguish CBOR from other formats
934     programmatically. To make it easier to distinguish CBOR from other
935     formats, the CBOR specification has a special "magic string" that can be
936 root 1.18 prepended to any CBOR string without changing its meaning.
937 root 1.3
938     This string is available as C<$CBOR::XS::MAGIC>. This module does not
939 root 1.18 prepend this string to the CBOR data it generates, but it will ignore it
940 root 1.3 if present, so users can prepend this string as a "file type" indicator as
941     required.
942    
943    
944 root 1.12 =head1 THE CBOR::XS::Tagged CLASS
945    
946     CBOR has the concept of tagged values - any CBOR value can be tagged with
947     a numeric 64 bit number, which are centrally administered.
948    
949     C<CBOR::XS> handles a few tags internally when en- or decoding. You can
950     also create tags yourself by encoding C<CBOR::XS::Tagged> objects, and the
951     decoder will create C<CBOR::XS::Tagged> objects itself when it hits an
952     unknown tag.
953    
954     These objects are simply blessed array references - the first member of
955     the array being the numerical tag, the second being the value.
956    
957     You can interact with C<CBOR::XS::Tagged> objects in the following ways:
958    
959     =over 4
960    
961     =item $tagged = CBOR::XS::tag $tag, $value
962    
963     This function(!) creates a new C<CBOR::XS::Tagged> object using the given
964     C<$tag> (0..2**64-1) to tag the given C<$value> (which can be any Perl
965     value that can be encoded in CBOR, including serialisable Perl objects and
966     C<CBOR::XS::Tagged> objects).
967    
968     =item $tagged->[0]
969    
970     =item $tagged->[0] = $new_tag
971    
972     =item $tag = $tagged->tag
973    
974     =item $new_tag = $tagged->tag ($new_tag)
975    
976     Access/mutate the tag.
977    
978     =item $tagged->[1]
979    
980     =item $tagged->[1] = $new_value
981    
982     =item $value = $tagged->value
983    
984     =item $new_value = $tagged->value ($new_value)
985    
986     Access/mutate the tagged value.
987    
988     =back
989    
990     =cut
991    
992     sub tag($$) {
993     bless [@_], CBOR::XS::Tagged::;
994     }
995    
996     sub CBOR::XS::Tagged::tag {
997     $_[0][0] = $_[1] if $#_;
998     $_[0][0]
999     }
1000    
1001     sub CBOR::XS::Tagged::value {
1002     $_[0][1] = $_[1] if $#_;
1003     $_[0][1]
1004     }
1005    
1006 root 1.13 =head2 EXAMPLES
1007    
1008     Here are some examples of C<CBOR::XS::Tagged> uses to tag objects.
1009    
1010     You can look up CBOR tag value and emanings in the IANA registry at
1011     L<http://www.iana.org/assignments/cbor-tags/cbor-tags.xhtml>.
1012    
1013     Prepend a magic header (C<$CBOR::XS::MAGIC>):
1014    
1015     my $cbor = encode_cbor CBOR::XS::tag 55799, $value;
1016     # same as:
1017     my $cbor = $CBOR::XS::MAGIC . encode_cbor $value;
1018    
1019     Serialise some URIs and a regex in an array:
1020    
1021     my $cbor = encode_cbor [
1022     (CBOR::XS::tag 32, "http://www.nethype.de/"),
1023     (CBOR::XS::tag 32, "http://software.schmorp.de/"),
1024     (CBOR::XS::tag 35, "^[Pp][Ee][Rr][lL]\$"),
1025     ];
1026    
1027     Wrap CBOR data in CBOR:
1028    
1029     my $cbor_cbor = encode_cbor
1030     CBOR::XS::tag 24,
1031     encode_cbor [1, 2, 3];
1032    
1033 root 1.19 =head1 TAG HANDLING AND EXTENSIONS
1034    
1035 root 1.22 This section describes how this module handles specific tagged values
1036     and extensions. If a tag is not mentioned here and no additional filters
1037     are provided for it, then the default handling applies (creating a
1038     CBOR::XS::Tagged object on decoding, and only encoding the tag when
1039     explicitly requested).
1040 root 1.19
1041 root 1.23 Tags not handled specifically are currently converted into a
1042     L<CBOR::XS::Tagged> object, which is simply a blessed array reference
1043     consisting of the numeric tag value followed by the (decoded) CBOR value.
1044    
1045 root 1.19 Future versions of this module reserve the right to special case
1046 root 1.22 additional tags (such as base64url).
1047    
1048     =head2 ENFORCED TAGS
1049    
1050     These tags are always handled when decoding, and their handling cannot be
1051 root 1.51 overridden by the user.
1052 root 1.19
1053     =over 4
1054    
1055 root 1.26 =item 26 (perl-object, L<http://cbor.schmorp.de/perl-object>)
1056 root 1.19
1057 root 1.23 These tags are automatically created (and decoded) for serialisable
1058     objects using the C<FREEZE/THAW> methods (the L<Types::Serialier> object
1059     serialisation protocol). See L<OBJECT SERIALISATION> for details.
1060 root 1.19
1061 root 1.45 =item 28, 29 (shareable, sharedref, L<http://cbor.schmorp.de/value-sharing>)
1062 root 1.19
1063 root 1.31 These tags are automatically decoded when encountered (and they do not
1064     result in a cyclic data structure, see C<allow_cycles>), resulting in
1065 root 1.19 shared values in the decoded object. They are only encoded, however, when
1066 root 1.31 C<allow_sharing> is enabled.
1067    
1068     Not all shared values can be successfully decoded: values that reference
1069     themselves will I<currently> decode as C<undef> (this is not the same
1070     as a reference pointing to itself, which will be represented as a value
1071     that contains an indirect reference to itself - these will be decoded
1072     properly).
1073    
1074     Note that considerably more shared value data structures can be decoded
1075     than will be encoded - currently, only values pointed to by references
1076     will be shared, others will not. While non-reference shared values can be
1077     generated in Perl with some effort, they were considered too unimportant
1078     to be supported in the encoder. The decoder, however, will decode these
1079     values as shared values.
1080 root 1.19
1081 root 1.45 =item 256, 25 (stringref-namespace, stringref, L<http://cbor.schmorp.de/stringref>)
1082 root 1.21
1083     These tags are automatically decoded when encountered. They are only
1084 root 1.25 encoded, however, when C<pack_strings> is enabled.
1085 root 1.21
1086 root 1.19 =item 22098 (indirection, L<http://cbor.schmorp.de/indirection>)
1087    
1088     This tag is automatically generated when a reference are encountered (with
1089 root 1.51 the exception of hash and array references). It is converted to a reference
1090 root 1.19 when decoding.
1091    
1092     =item 55799 (self-describe CBOR, RFC 7049)
1093    
1094     This value is not generated on encoding (unless explicitly requested by
1095     the user), and is simply ignored when decoding.
1096    
1097     =back
1098    
1099 root 1.24 =head2 NON-ENFORCED TAGS
1100 root 1.22
1101     These tags have default filters provided when decoding. Their handling can
1102 root 1.51 be overridden by changing the C<%CBOR::XS::FILTER> entry for the tag, or by
1103 root 1.24 providing a custom C<filter> callback when decoding.
1104 root 1.22
1105     When they result in decoding into a specific Perl class, the module
1106     usually provides a corresponding C<TO_CBOR> method as well.
1107    
1108     When any of these need to load additional modules that are not part of the
1109     perl core distribution (e.g. L<URI>), it is (currently) up to the user to
1110     provide these modules. The decoding usually fails with an exception if the
1111     required module cannot be loaded.
1112    
1113     =over 4
1114    
1115 root 1.35 =item 0, 1 (date/time string, seconds since the epoch)
1116    
1117     These tags are decoded into L<Time::Piece> objects. The corresponding
1118     C<Time::Piece::TO_CBOR> method always encodes into tag 1 values currently.
1119    
1120     The L<Time::Piece> API is generally surprisingly bad, and fractional
1121     seconds are only accidentally kept intact, so watch out. On the plus side,
1122     the module comes with perl since 5.10, which has to count for something.
1123    
1124 root 1.22 =item 2, 3 (positive/negative bignum)
1125    
1126     These tags are decoded into L<Math::BigInt> objects. The corresponding
1127     C<Math::BigInt::TO_CBOR> method encodes "small" bigints into normal CBOR
1128     integers, and others into positive/negative CBOR bignums.
1129    
1130 root 1.55 =item 4, 5, 264, 265 (decimal fraction/bigfloat)
1131 root 1.22
1132     Both decimal fractions and bigfloats are decoded into L<Math::BigFloat>
1133     objects. The corresponding C<Math::BigFloat::TO_CBOR> method I<always>
1134 root 1.55 encodes into a decimal fraction (either tag 4 or 264).
1135 root 1.22
1136 root 1.55 NaN and infinities are not encoded properly, as they cannot be represented
1137     in CBOR.
1138 root 1.22
1139 root 1.55 See L<BIGNUM SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS> for more info.
1140 root 1.22
1141 root 1.58 =item 30 (rational numbers)
1142    
1143     These tags are decoded into L<Math::BigRat> objects. The corresponding
1144     C<Math::BigRat::TO_CBOR> method encodes rational numbers with denominator
1145     C<1> via their numerator only, i.e., they become normal integers or
1146     C<bignums>.
1147    
1148     See L<BIGNUM SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS> for more info.
1149    
1150 root 1.22 =item 21, 22, 23 (expected later JSON conversion)
1151    
1152     CBOR::XS is not a CBOR-to-JSON converter, and will simply ignore these
1153     tags.
1154    
1155     =item 32 (URI)
1156    
1157     These objects decode into L<URI> objects. The corresponding
1158     C<URI::TO_CBOR> method again results in a CBOR URI value.
1159    
1160     =back
1161    
1162     =cut
1163    
1164 root 1.7 =head1 CBOR and JSON
1165 root 1.1
1166 root 1.4 CBOR is supposed to implement a superset of the JSON data model, and is,
1167     with some coercion, able to represent all JSON texts (something that other
1168     "binary JSON" formats such as BSON generally do not support).
1169    
1170     CBOR implements some extra hints and support for JSON interoperability,
1171     and the spec offers further guidance for conversion between CBOR and
1172     JSON. None of this is currently implemented in CBOR, and the guidelines
1173     in the spec do not result in correct round-tripping of data. If JSON
1174     interoperability is improved in the future, then the goal will be to
1175     ensure that decoded JSON data will round-trip encoding and decoding to
1176     CBOR intact.
1177 root 1.1
1178    
1179     =head1 SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS
1180    
1181 root 1.65 Tl;dr... if you want to decode or encode CBOR from untrusted sources, you
1182 root 1.69 should start with a coder object created via C<new_safe> (which implements
1183     the mitigations explained below):
1184 root 1.65
1185     my $coder = CBOR::XS->new_safe;
1186 root 1.1
1187 root 1.65 my $data = $coder->decode ($cbor_text);
1188     my $cbor = $coder->encode ($data);
1189    
1190     Longer version: When you are using CBOR in a protocol, talking to
1191     untrusted potentially hostile creatures requires some thought:
1192    
1193     =over 4
1194    
1195     =item Security of the CBOR decoder itself
1196    
1197     First and foremost, your CBOR decoder should be secure, that is, should
1198     not have any buffer overflows or similar bugs that could potentially be
1199     exploited. Obviously, this module should ensure that and I am trying hard
1200     on making that true, but you never know.
1201    
1202     =item CBOR::XS can invoke almost arbitrary callbacks during decoding
1203    
1204     CBOR::XS supports object serialisation - decoding CBOR can cause calls
1205     to I<any> C<THAW> method in I<any> package that exists in your process
1206     (that is, CBOR::XS will not try to load modules, but any existing C<THAW>
1207     method or function can be called, so they all have to be secure).
1208    
1209     Less obviously, it will also invoke C<TO_CBOR> and C<FREEZE> methods -
1210     even if all your C<THAW> methods are secure, encoding data structures from
1211     untrusted sources can invoke those and trigger bugs in those.
1212    
1213     So, if you are not sure about the security of all the modules you
1214     have loaded (you shouldn't), you should disable this part using
1215 root 1.69 C<forbid_objects> or using C<new_safe>.
1216 root 1.65
1217     =item CBOR can be extended with tags that call library code
1218    
1219     CBOR can be extended with tags, and C<CBOR::XS> has a registry of
1220     conversion functions for many existing tags that can be extended via
1221     third-party modules (see the C<filter> method).
1222    
1223     If you don't trust these, you should configure the "safe" filter function,
1224 root 1.69 C<CBOR::XS::safe_filter> (C<new_safe> does this), which by default only
1225     includes conversion functions that are considered "safe" by the author
1226     (but again, they can be extended by third party modules).
1227 root 1.65
1228     Depending on your level of paranoia, you can use the "safe" filter:
1229    
1230     $cbor->filter (\&CBOR::XS::safe_filter);
1231    
1232     ... your own filter...
1233    
1234     $cbor->filter (sub { ... do your stuffs here ... });
1235    
1236     ... or even no filter at all, disabling all tag decoding:
1237    
1238     $cbor->filter (sub { });
1239    
1240     This is never a problem for encoding, as the tag mechanism only exists in
1241     CBOR texts.
1242    
1243     =item Resource-starving attacks: object memory usage
1244    
1245     You need to avoid resource-starving attacks. That means you should limit
1246     the size of CBOR data you accept, or make sure then when your resources
1247     run out, that's just fine (e.g. by using a separate process that can
1248     crash safely). The size of a CBOR string in octets is usually a good
1249 root 1.1 indication of the size of the resources required to decode it into a Perl
1250 root 1.65 structure. While CBOR::XS can check the size of the CBOR text (using
1251 root 1.69 C<max_size> - done by C<new_safe>), it might be too late when you already
1252     have it in memory, so you might want to check the size before you accept
1253     the string.
1254 root 1.65
1255     As for encoding, it is possible to construct data structures that are
1256     relatively small but result in large CBOR texts (for example by having an
1257     array full of references to the same big data structure, which will all be
1258     deep-cloned during encoding by default). This is rarely an actual issue
1259     (and the worst case is still just running out of memory), but you can
1260     reduce this risk by using C<allow_sharing>.
1261    
1262     =item Resource-starving attacks: stack overflows
1263    
1264     CBOR::XS recurses using the C stack when decoding objects and arrays. The
1265     C stack is a limited resource: for instance, on my amd64 machine with 8MB
1266     of stack size I can decode around 180k nested arrays but only 14k nested
1267     CBOR objects (due to perl itself recursing deeply on croak to free the
1268     temporary). If that is exceeded, the program crashes. To be conservative,
1269     the default nesting limit is set to 512. If your process has a smaller
1270     stack, you should adjust this setting accordingly with the C<max_depth>
1271     method.
1272    
1273     =item Resource-starving attacks: CPU en-/decoding complexity
1274    
1275     CBOR::XS will use the L<Math::BigInt>, L<Math::BigFloat> and
1276 root 1.69 L<Math::BigRat> libraries to represent encode/decode bignums. These can be
1277     very slow (as in, centuries of CPU time) and can even crash your program
1278     (and are generally not very trustworthy). See the next section on bignum
1279     security for details.
1280 root 1.65
1281     =item Data breaches: leaking information in error messages
1282    
1283     CBOR::XS might leak contents of your Perl data structures in its error
1284     messages, so when you serialise sensitive information you might want to
1285     make sure that exceptions thrown by CBOR::XS will not end up in front of
1286     untrusted eyes.
1287    
1288     =item Something else...
1289 root 1.1
1290     Something else could bomb you, too, that I forgot to think of. In that
1291     case, you get to keep the pieces. I am always open for hints, though...
1292    
1293 root 1.65 =back
1294 root 1.1
1295 root 1.55
1296     =head1 BIGNUM SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS
1297    
1298     CBOR::XS provides a C<TO_CBOR> method for both L<Math::BigInt> and
1299     L<Math::BigFloat> that tries to encode the number in the simplest possible
1300     way, that is, either a CBOR integer, a CBOR bigint/decimal fraction (tag
1301 root 1.58 4) or an arbitrary-exponent decimal fraction (tag 264). Rational numbers
1302     (L<Math::BigRat>, tag 30) can also contain bignums as members.
1303 root 1.55
1304 root 1.58 CBOR::XS will also understand base-2 bigfloat or arbitrary-exponent
1305     bigfloats (tags 5 and 265), but it will never generate these on its own.
1306 root 1.55
1307     Using the built-in L<Math::BigInt::Calc> support, encoding and decoding
1308     decimal fractions is generally fast. Decoding bigints can be slow for very
1309 root 1.58 big numbers (tens of thousands of digits, something that could potentially
1310     be caught by limiting the size of CBOR texts), and decoding bigfloats or
1311     arbitrary-exponent bigfloats can be I<extremely> slow (minutes, decades)
1312     for large exponents (roughly 40 bit and longer).
1313 root 1.55
1314     Additionally, L<Math::BigInt> can take advantage of other bignum
1315 root 1.58 libraries, such as L<Math::GMP>, which cannot handle big floats with large
1316     exponents, and might simply abort or crash your program, due to their code
1317     quality.
1318 root 1.55
1319     This can be a concern if you want to parse untrusted CBOR. If it is, you
1320 root 1.58 might want to disable decoding of tag 2 (bigint) and 3 (negative bigint)
1321     types. You should also disable types 5 and 265, as these can be slow even
1322     without bigints.
1323    
1324     Disabling bigints will also partially or fully disable types that rely on
1325     them, e.g. rational numbers that use bignums.
1326 root 1.55
1327    
1328 root 1.1 =head1 CBOR IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
1329    
1330     This section contains some random implementation notes. They do not
1331     describe guaranteed behaviour, but merely behaviour as-is implemented
1332     right now.
1333    
1334     64 bit integers are only properly decoded when Perl was built with 64 bit
1335     support.
1336    
1337     Strings and arrays are encoded with a definite length. Hashes as well,
1338     unless they are tied (or otherwise magical).
1339    
1340     Only the double data type is supported for NV data types - when Perl uses
1341     long double to represent floating point values, they might not be encoded
1342     properly. Half precision types are accepted, but not encoded.
1343    
1344     Strict mode and canonical mode are not implemented.
1345    
1346    
1347 root 1.30 =head1 LIMITATIONS ON PERLS WITHOUT 64-BIT INTEGER SUPPORT
1348    
1349     On perls that were built without 64 bit integer support (these are rare
1350 root 1.43 nowadays, even on 32 bit architectures, as all major Perl distributions
1351     are built with 64 bit integer support), support for any kind of 64 bit
1352 root 1.71 value in CBOR is very limited - most likely, these 64 bit values will
1353 root 1.30 be truncated, corrupted, or otherwise not decoded correctly. This also
1354 root 1.71 includes string, float, array and map sizes that are stored as 64 bit
1355     integers.
1356 root 1.30
1357    
1358 root 1.1 =head1 THREADS
1359    
1360     This module is I<not> guaranteed to be thread safe and there are no
1361     plans to change this until Perl gets thread support (as opposed to the
1362     horribly slow so-called "threads" which are simply slow and bloated
1363     process simulations - use fork, it's I<much> faster, cheaper, better).
1364    
1365     (It might actually work, but you have been warned).
1366    
1367    
1368     =head1 BUGS
1369    
1370     While the goal of this module is to be correct, that unfortunately does
1371     not mean it's bug-free, only that I think its design is bug-free. If you
1372     keep reporting bugs they will be fixed swiftly, though.
1373    
1374     Please refrain from using rt.cpan.org or any other bug reporting
1375     service. I put the contact address into my modules for a reason.
1376    
1377     =cut
1378    
1379 root 1.65 # clumsy and slow hv_store-in-hash helper function
1380 root 1.64 sub _hv_store {
1381     $_[0]{$_[1]} = $_[2];
1382     }
1383    
1384 root 1.22 our %FILTER = (
1385 root 1.35 0 => sub { # rfc4287 datetime, utf-8
1386     require Time::Piece;
1387     # Time::Piece::Strptime uses the "incredibly flexible date parsing routine"
1388     # from FreeBSD, which can't parse ISO 8601, RFC3339, RFC4287 or much of anything
1389     # else either. Whats incredibe over standard strptime totally escapes me.
1390     # doesn't do fractional times, either. sigh.
1391 root 1.36 # In fact, it's all a lie, it uses whatever strptime it wants, and of course,
1392 root 1.47 # they are all incompatible. The openbsd one simply ignores %z (but according to the
1393 root 1.37 # docs, it would be much more incredibly flexible indeed. If it worked, that is.).
1394 root 1.35 scalar eval {
1395     my $s = $_[1];
1396    
1397     $s =~ s/Z$/+00:00/;
1398 root 1.36 $s =~ s/(\.[0-9]+)?([+-][0-9][0-9]):([0-9][0-9])$//
1399 root 1.35 or die;
1400    
1401 root 1.36 my $b = $1 - ($2 * 60 + $3) * 60; # fractional part + offset. hopefully
1402     my $d = Time::Piece->strptime ($s, "%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S");
1403 root 1.35
1404 root 1.36 Time::Piece::gmtime ($d->epoch + $b)
1405 root 1.35 } || die "corrupted CBOR date/time string ($_[0])";
1406     },
1407    
1408     1 => sub { # seconds since the epoch, possibly fractional
1409     require Time::Piece;
1410     scalar Time::Piece::gmtime (pop)
1411     },
1412 root 1.22
1413     2 => sub { # pos bigint
1414     require Math::BigInt;
1415 root 1.57 Math::BigInt->new ("0x" . unpack "H*", pop)
1416 root 1.22 },
1417    
1418     3 => sub { # neg bigint
1419     require Math::BigInt;
1420 root 1.57 -Math::BigInt->new ("0x" . unpack "H*", pop)
1421 root 1.22 },
1422    
1423     4 => sub { # decimal fraction, array
1424     require Math::BigFloat;
1425     Math::BigFloat->new ($_[1][1] . "E" . $_[1][0])
1426     },
1427    
1428 root 1.58 264 => sub { # decimal fraction with arbitrary exponent
1429     require Math::BigFloat;
1430     Math::BigFloat->new ($_[1][1] . "E" . $_[1][0])
1431     },
1432    
1433 root 1.22 5 => sub { # bigfloat, array
1434     require Math::BigFloat;
1435 root 1.50 scalar Math::BigFloat->new ($_[1][1]) * Math::BigFloat->new (2)->bpow ($_[1][0])
1436 root 1.22 },
1437    
1438 root 1.58 265 => sub { # bigfloat with arbitrary exponent
1439     require Math::BigFloat;
1440     scalar Math::BigFloat->new ($_[1][1]) * Math::BigFloat->new (2)->bpow ($_[1][0])
1441     },
1442    
1443     30 => sub { # rational number
1444     require Math::BigRat;
1445     Math::BigRat->new ("$_[1][0]/$_[1][1]") # separate parameters only work in recent versons
1446     },
1447    
1448 root 1.22 21 => sub { pop }, # expected conversion to base64url encoding
1449     22 => sub { pop }, # expected conversion to base64 encoding
1450     23 => sub { pop }, # expected conversion to base16 encoding
1451    
1452     # 24 # embedded cbor, byte string
1453    
1454     32 => sub {
1455     require URI;
1456     URI->new (pop)
1457     },
1458    
1459     # 33 # base64url rfc4648, utf-8
1460     # 34 # base64 rfc46484, utf-8
1461     # 35 # regex pcre/ecma262, utf-8
1462     # 36 # mime message rfc2045, utf-8
1463     );
1464    
1465 root 1.65 sub default_filter {
1466 root 1.22 &{ $FILTER{$_[0]} or return }
1467     }
1468    
1469 root 1.65 our %SAFE_FILTER = map { $_ => $FILTER{$_} } 0, 1, 21, 22, 23, 32;
1470    
1471     sub safe_filter {
1472     &{ $SAFE_FILTER{$_[0]} or return }
1473     }
1474    
1475 root 1.22 sub URI::TO_CBOR {
1476     my $uri = $_[0]->as_string;
1477     utf8::upgrade $uri;
1478 root 1.35 tag 32, $uri
1479 root 1.22 }
1480    
1481     sub Math::BigInt::TO_CBOR {
1482 root 1.55 if (-2147483648 <= $_[0] && $_[0] <= 2147483647) {
1483 root 1.22 $_[0]->numify
1484     } else {
1485     my $hex = substr $_[0]->as_hex, 2;
1486     $hex = "0$hex" if 1 & length $hex; # sigh
1487 root 1.35 tag $_[0] >= 0 ? 2 : 3, pack "H*", $hex
1488 root 1.22 }
1489     }
1490    
1491     sub Math::BigFloat::TO_CBOR {
1492     my ($m, $e) = $_[0]->parts;
1493 root 1.55
1494     -9223372036854775808 <= $e && $e <= 18446744073709551615
1495     ? tag 4, [$e->numify, $m]
1496     : tag 264, [$e, $m]
1497 root 1.35 }
1498    
1499 root 1.58 sub Math::BigRat::TO_CBOR {
1500     my ($n, $d) = $_[0]->parts;
1501    
1502 root 1.60 # older versions of BigRat need *1, as they not always return numbers
1503 root 1.59
1504     $d*1 == 1
1505     ? $n*1
1506     : tag 30, [$n*1, $d*1]
1507 root 1.58 }
1508    
1509 root 1.35 sub Time::Piece::TO_CBOR {
1510 root 1.40 tag 1, 0 + $_[0]->epoch
1511 root 1.22 }
1512    
1513 root 1.1 XSLoader::load "CBOR::XS", $VERSION;
1514    
1515     =head1 SEE ALSO
1516    
1517     The L<JSON> and L<JSON::XS> modules that do similar, but human-readable,
1518     serialisation.
1519    
1520 root 1.6 The L<Types::Serialiser> module provides the data model for true, false
1521     and error values.
1522    
1523 root 1.1 =head1 AUTHOR
1524    
1525     Marc Lehmann <schmorp@schmorp.de>
1526     http://home.schmorp.de/
1527    
1528     =cut
1529    
1530 root 1.6 1
1531