Avoid quadratic output growth with reference links

Keep track of the number bytes added through expansion of reference
links and limit the total to the size of the input document. Always
allow a minimum of 100KB.

Unfortunately, cmark has no error handling, so all we can do is to
stop expanding reference links without returning an error. This should
never be an issue in practice though. The 100KB minimum alone should
cover all real-world cases.

See issue github#354.

Author: nwellnhof

src/blocks.c

@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 #include <stdlib.h>
 #include <assert.h>
 #include <stdio.h>
+#include <limits.h>
 
 #include "cmark_ctype.h"
 #include "syntax_extension.h"
@@ -639,6 +640,14 @@ static cmark_node *finalize_document(cmark_parser *parser) {
   }
 
   finalize(parser, parser->root);
+
+  // Limit total size of extra content created from reference links to
+  // document size to avoid superlinear growth. Always allow 100KB.
+  if (parser->total_size > 100000)
+    parser->refmap->max_ref_size = parser->total_size;
+  else
+    parser->refmap->max_ref_size = 100000;
+
   process_inlines(parser, parser->refmap, parser->options);
   if (parser->options & CMARK_OPT_FOOTNOTES)
     process_footnotes(parser);
@@ -698,6 +707,11 @@ static void S_parser_feed(cmark_parser *parser, const unsigned char *buffer,
   const unsigned char *end = buffer + len;
   static const uint8_t repl[] = {239, 191, 189};
 
+  if (len > UINT_MAX - parser->total_size)
+    parser->total_size = UINT_MAX;
+  else
+    parser->total_size += len;
+
   if (parser->last_buffer_ended_with_cr && *buffer == '\n') {
     // skip NL if last buffer ended with CR ; see #117
     buffer++;

src/map.c

@@ -73,6 +73,7 @@ static void sort_map(cmark_map *map) {
 
 cmark_map_entry *cmark_map_lookup(cmark_map *map, cmark_chunk *label) {
   cmark_map_entry **ref = NULL;
+  cmark_map_entry *r = NULL;
   unsigned char *norm;
 
   if (label->len < 1 || label->len > MAX_LINK_LABEL_LENGTH)
@@ -91,10 +92,15 @@ cmark_map_entry *cmark_map_lookup(cmark_map *map, cmark_chunk *label) {
   ref = (cmark_map_entry **)bsearch(norm, map->sorted, map->size, sizeof(cmark_map_entry *), refsearch);
   map->mem->free(norm);
 
-  if (!ref)
-    return NULL;
+  if (ref != NULL) {
+    r = ref[0];
+    /* Check for expansion limit */
+    if (r->size > map->max_ref_size - map->ref_size)
+      return NULL;
+    map->ref_size += r->size;
+  }
 
-  return ref[0];
+  return r;
 }
 
 void cmark_map_free(cmark_map *map) {
@@ -118,5 +124,6 @@ cmark_map *cmark_map_new(cmark_mem *mem, cmark_map_free_f free) {
   cmark_map *map = (cmark_map *)mem->calloc(1, sizeof(cmark_map));
   map->mem = mem;
   map->free = free;
+  map->max_ref_size = UINT_MAX;
   return map;
 }

src/map.h

@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ struct cmark_map_entry {
   struct cmark_map_entry *next;
   unsigned char *label;
   unsigned int age;
+  unsigned int size;
 };
 
 typedef struct cmark_map_entry cmark_map_entry;
@@ -24,6 +25,8 @@ struct cmark_map {
   cmark_map_entry *refs;
   cmark_map_entry **sorted;
   unsigned int size;
+  unsigned int ref_size;
+  unsigned int max_ref_size;
   cmark_map_free_f free;
 };
 

src/parser.h

@@ -46,6 +46,7 @@ struct cmark_parser {
   /* Options set by the user, see the Options section in cmark.h */
   int options;
   bool last_buffer_ended_with_cr;
+  unsigned int total_size;
   cmark_llist *syntax_extensions;
   cmark_llist *inline_syntax_extensions;
   cmark_ispunct_func backslash_ispunct;

src/references.c

@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@ void cmark_reference_create(cmark_map *map, cmark_chunk *label,
   ref->title = cmark_clean_title(map->mem, title);
   ref->entry.age = map->size;
   ref->entry.next = map->refs;
+  ref->entry.size = ref->url.len + ref->title.len;
 
   map->refs = (cmark_map_entry *)ref;
   map->size++;