Files
tai/research/safe-cpp-practices/libfuzzer-sanitizer-ci.md
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retoorandClaude Opus 4.8 79ae6f27da cpp-safety: safe-C++ playbook, fix a second UB, and a sanitizer net
Response to incident WA-2026-10-27 (the std::vector max_size() crash). Deep
research archived under research/safe-cpp-practices (8 Tier 1, 37 Tier 2, 2
conclusions) on production-safe C++ that keeps development speed: OpenSSF
compiler hardening, the C++ Core Guidelines bounds profile, integer-overflow
practice, libFuzzer/sanitizer CI, the sanitizer overhead ladder, clang-tidy
ratchets.

The research prescribed an ASan+UBSan+_GLIBCXX_ASSERTIONS build of the parsers.
Standing it up immediately caught a second, independent undefined-behavior bug
that two manual reviews had missed: a protobuf varint loop that shifted by up
to 70 bits (shift >= 64 is UB) on malformed input. Fixed and guarded by a
deterministic test and the sanitizer net.

- src/whatsapp/wa_proto.cpp: guard the wire-0 varint shift (the UB).
- tests/whatsapp_test.cpp: add an overlong-varint hostile case.
- tools/san-whatsapp.sh: the standing sanitizer net for detz::wa parsers.
- WaClient frame capture: a frame that fails to decode/dispatch has its exact
  bytes recorded to <home>/whatsapp/last-error.log (bounded), so the still
  unreproduced live <iq> failure becomes a one-paste deterministic fix. Wired
  from the wizard and the whatsapp_send tool.
- docs/cpp-safety.md: the project-wide playbook and design decisions (four
  layers: overflow-safe checked-reader parsing, cheap release hardening, the
  sanitizer test net, capture). docs/whatsapp.md section 13.6 records the
  follow-up and the honest open item. AGENTS.md makes it a standing rule;
  cap.md and mcp.md inherit it for their wire parsers.

Verified: build, whatsapp_test (incl. hostile+fuzz), make lint, and
tools/san-whatsapp.sh all green; research audit PASS.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-10-27 19:03:32 +01:00

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2.1 KiB
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# Coverage-guided fuzzing of parsers with libFuzzer + ASan/UBSan in CI
## Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Institute | Molodetz Institute — Research & Retrieval Division |
| Subject | safe-cpp-practices |
| Document type | Source Dossier |
| Tier | 1 |
| Source title | Coverage-guided fuzzing of parsers with libFuzzer + ASan/UBSan in CI |
| Source URL | https://appsec.guide/docs/fuzzing/c-cpp/libfuzzer/ |
| Source publisher / author | Trail of Bits (appsec.guide); debugg.ai |
| Source type | vendor docs |
| Source date (published) | Unknown — not stated |
| Date researched | 2026-10-27 |
| Researched by | tai (agent), model: Claude Opus 4.8, on behalf of retoor |
| Research method | web search synthesis |
| Confidence | High |
| Status | Active |
## Summary
The standard way to harden an untrusted binary parser: a fuzz harness per entry point, built with -fsanitize=fuzzer,address,undefined and -fno-sanitize-recover, run short on every push and long nightly, with a regression corpus of past crashes rerun on every build.
## Key findings
- Build with `-fsanitize=fuzzer,address,undefined` and `-fno-sanitize-recover` so a finding aborts rather than warns.
- One harness per untrusted-input entry point, with bounded input sizes.
- Keep a regression corpus of past crashing inputs and rerun it on every build.
- 'No crashes' only means something if the harness reaches the risky code, so track coverage.
- ASan adds ~2-4x runtime; it is a test tool, not a release one.
## Pros / strengths
Concrete, matches industry practice; the regression-corpus rule is exactly what turns an unreproducible bug into a permanent test.
## Cons / limitations / caveats
libFuzzer is now maintenance-only at LLVM (successor: Centipede); the CI pattern is unaffected but tool choice may shift.
## Relevance to tai
detz adopts the pattern at its scale: a deterministic hostile-input test plus a random-input fuzz in whatsapp_test, run under ASan+UBSan via tools/san-whatsapp.sh, and a captured-frame file as the regression corpus seed.
## Changelog
| Date | Change |
|---|---|
| 2026-10-27 | Initial dossier created (web search synthesis). |