Insecure use of global timeout

Description

Setting a global timeout can cause an exception to be raised anywhere in the passed block of code, precluding any possible clean up action typically associated with rescuing from exceptions. This can lead to denial-of-service, data integrity failure, and general availability concerns.

Examples

Insecure Code

Timeout::timeout(5) { # code that may raise an exception }

Secure Code

begin # code that may raise an exception; rescue Exception => e; # clean up action; end

Remediation

Prefer to use the library's built-in timeout functionality, if it has any, to ensure processing happens as expected. If it does not have built-in timeout functionality, then consider implementing it.

Rule Details

Field	Value
ID	CODE-0003
Category	Generic
Severity	MEDIUM
CWE	CWE-460
Confidence	HIGH
Impact	LOW
Likelihood	HIGH
Exploitability	MODERATE
Tags	timeout, exception handling
OWASP	N/A

References

• https://jvns.ca/blog/2015/11/27/why-rubys-timeout-is-dangerous-and-thread-dot-raise-is-terrifying/
• https://ruby-doc.org/3.3.2/stdlibs/timeout/Timeout.html
• http://blog.headius.com/2008/02/rubys-threadraise-threadkill-timeoutrb.html
• https://www.mikeperham.com/2015/05/08/timeout-rubys-most-dangerous-api/

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