(** Bitmatch library. *) (* Copyright (C) 2008 Red Hat Inc., Richard W.M. Jones * * This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or * modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public * License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either * version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. * * This library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU * Lesser General Public License for more details. * * You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public * License along with this library; if not, write to the Free Software * Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA * * $Id: bitmatch.mli,v 1.20 2008-05-08 21:28:28 rjones Exp $ *) (** {{:#reference}Jump straight to the reference section for documentation on types and functions}. {2 Introduction} Bitmatch adds Erlang-style bitstrings and matching over bitstrings as a syntax extension and library for OCaml. You can use this module to both parse and generate binary formats, for example, communications protocols, disk formats and binary files. {{:http://et.redhat.com/~rjones/bitmatch/}OCaml bitmatch website} {2 Examples} A function which can parse IPv4 packets: {[ let display pkt = bitmatch pkt with (* IPv4 packet header 0 1 2 3 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | 4 | IHL |Type of Service| Total Length | +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | Identification |Flags| Fragment Offset | +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | Time to Live | Protocol | Header Checksum | +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | Source Address | +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | Destination Address | +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | Options | Padding | +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ *) | { 4 : 4; hdrlen : 4; tos : 8; length : 16; identification : 16; flags : 3; fragoffset : 13; ttl : 8; protocol : 8; checksum : 16; source : 32; dest : 32; options : (hdrlen-5)*32 : bitstring; payload : -1 : bitstring } -> printf "IPv4:\n"; printf " header length: %d * 32 bit words\n" hdrlen; printf " type of service: %d\n" tos; printf " packet length: %d bytes\n" length; printf " identification: %d\n" identification; printf " flags: %d\n" flags; printf " fragment offset: %d\n" fragoffset; printf " ttl: %d\n" ttl; printf " protocol: %d\n" protocol; printf " checksum: %d\n" checksum; printf " source: %lx dest: %lx\n" source dest; printf " header options + padding:\n"; Bitmatch.hexdump_bitstring stdout options; printf " packet payload:\n"; Bitmatch.hexdump_bitstring stdout payload | { version : 4 } -> eprintf "unknown IP version %d\n" version; exit 1 | { _ } as pkt -> eprintf "data is smaller than one nibble:\n"; Bitmatch.hexdump_bitstring stderr pkt; exit 1 ]} A program which can parse {{:http://lxr.linux.no/linux/include/linux/ext3_fs.h}Linux EXT3 filesystem superblocks}: {[ let bits = Bitmatch.bitstring_of_file "tests/ext3_sb" let () = bitmatch bits with | { s_inodes_count : 32 : littleendian; (* Inodes count *) s_blocks_count : 32 : littleendian; (* Blocks count *) s_r_blocks_count : 32 : littleendian; (* Reserved blocks count *) s_free_blocks_count : 32 : littleendian; (* Free blocks count *) s_free_inodes_count : 32 : littleendian; (* Free inodes count *) s_first_data_block : 32 : littleendian; (* First Data Block *) s_log_block_size : 32 : littleendian; (* Block size *) s_log_frag_size : 32 : littleendian; (* Fragment size *) s_blocks_per_group : 32 : littleendian; (* # Blocks per group *) s_frags_per_group : 32 : littleendian; (* # Fragments per group *) s_inodes_per_group : 32 : littleendian; (* # Inodes per group *) s_mtime : 32 : littleendian; (* Mount time *) s_wtime : 32 : littleendian; (* Write time *) s_mnt_count : 16 : littleendian; (* Mount count *) s_max_mnt_count : 16 : littleendian; (* Maximal mount count *) 0xef53 : 16 : littleendian } -> (* Magic signature *) printf "ext3 superblock:\n"; printf " s_inodes_count = %ld\n" s_inodes_count; printf " s_blocks_count = %ld\n" s_blocks_count; printf " s_free_inodes_count = %ld\n" s_free_inodes_count; printf " s_free_blocks_count = %ld\n" s_free_blocks_count | { _ } -> eprintf "not an ext3 superblock!\n%!"; exit 2 ]} Constructing packets for a simple binary message protocol: {[ (* +---------------+---------------+--------------------------+ | type | subtype | parameter | +---------------+---------------+--------------------------+ <-- 16 bits --> <-- 16 bits --> <------- 32 bits --------> All fields are in network byte order. *) let make_message typ subtype param = (BITSTRING { typ : 16; subtype : 16; param : 32 }) ;; ]} {2 Loading, creating bitstrings} The basic data type is the {!bitstring}, a string of bits of arbitrary length. Bitstrings can be any length in bits and operations do not need to be byte-aligned (although they will generally be more efficient if they are byte-aligned). Internally a bitstring is stored as a normal OCaml [string] together with an offset and length, where the offset and length are measured in bits. Thus one can efficiently form substrings of bitstrings, overlay a bitstring on existing data, and load and save bitstrings from files or other external sources. To load a bitstring from a file use {!bitstring_of_file} or {!bitstring_of_chan}. There are also functions to create bitstrings from arbitrary data. See the {{:#reference}reference} below. {2 Matching bitstrings with patterns} Use the [bitmatch] operator (part of the syntax extension) to break apart a bitstring into its fields. [bitmatch] works a lot like the OCaml [match] operator. The general form of [bitmatch] is: [bitmatch {] {i bitstring-expression} [} with] [| {] {i pattern} [} ->] {i code} [| {] {i pattern} [} ->] {i code} [|] ... As with normal match, the statement attempts to match the bitstring against each pattern in turn. If none of the patterns match then the standard library [Match_failure] exception is thrown. Patterns look a bit different from normal match patterns. The consist of a list of bitfields separated by [;] where each bitfield contains a bind variable, the width (in bits) of the field, and other information. Some example patterns: {[ bitmatch bits with | { version : 8; name : 8; param : 8 } -> ... (* Bitstring of at least 3 bytes. First byte is the version number, second byte is a field called name, third byte is a field called parameter. *) | { flag : 1 } -> printf "flag is %b\n" flag (* A single flag bit (mapped into an OCaml boolean). *) | { len : 4; data : 1+len } -> printf "len = %d, data = 0x%Lx\n" len data (* A 4-bit length, followed by 1-16 bits of data, where the length of the data is computed from len. *) | { ipv6_source : 128 : bitstring; ipv6_dest : 128 : bitstring } -> ... (* IPv6 source and destination addresses. Each is 128 bits and is mapped into a bitstring type which will be a substring of the main bitstring expression. *) ]} You can also add conditional when-clauses: {[ | { version : 4 } when version = 4 || version = 6 -> ... (* Only match and run the code when version is 4 or 6. If it isn't we will drop through to the next case. *) ]} Note that the pattern is only compared against the first part of the bitstring (there may be more data in the bitstring following the pattern, which is not matched). In terms of regular expressions you might say that the pattern matches [^pattern], not [^pattern$]. To ensure that the bitstring contains only the pattern, add a length -1 bitstring to the end and test that its length is zero in the when-clause: {[ | { n : 4; rest : -1 : bitstring } when Bitmatch.bitstring_length rest = 0 -> ... (* Only matches exactly 4 bits. *) ]} Normally the first part of each field is a binding variable, but you can also match a constant, as in: {[ | { (4|6) : 4 } -> ... (* Only matches if the first 4 bits contain either the integer 4 or the integer 6. *) ]} One may also match on strings: {[ | { "MAGIC" : 5*8 : string } -> ... (* Only matches if the string "MAGIC" appears at the start of the input. *) ]} {3:patternfieldreference Pattern field reference} The exact format of each pattern field is: [pattern : length [: qualifier [,qualifier ...]]] [pattern] is the pattern, binding variable name, or constant to match. [length] is the length in bits which may be either a constant or an expression. The length expression is just an OCaml expression and can use any values defined in the program, and refer back to earlier fields (but not to later fields). Integers can only have lengths in the range \[1..64\] bits. See the {{:#integertypes}integer types} section below for how these are mapped to the OCaml int/int32/int64 types. This is checked at compile time if the length expression is constant, otherwise it is checked at runtime and you will get a runtime exception eg. in the case of a computed length expression. A bitstring field of length -1 matches all the rest of the bitstring (thus this is only useful as the last field in a pattern). A bitstring field of length 0 matches an empty bitstring (occasionally useful when matching optional subfields). Qualifiers are a list of identifiers which control the type, signedness and endianness of the field. Permissible qualifiers are: - [int] (field has an integer type) - [string] (field is a string type) - [bitstring] (field is a bitstring type) - [signed] (field is signed) - [unsigned] (field is unsigned) - [bigendian] (field is big endian - a.k.a network byte order) - [littleendian] (field is little endian - a.k.a Intel byte order) - [nativeendian] (field is same endianness as the machine) The default settings are [int], [unsigned], [bigendian]. Note that many of these qualifiers cannot be used together, eg. bitstrings do not have endianness. The syntax extension should give you a compile-time error if you use incompatible qualifiers. {3 Other cases in bitmatch} As well as a list of fields, it is possible to name the bitstring and/or have a default match case: {[ | { _ } -> ... (* Default match case. *) | { _ } as pkt -> ... (* Default match case, with 'pkt' bound to the whole bitstring. *) ]} {2 Constructing bitstrings} Bitstrings may be constructed using the [BITSTRING] operator (as an expression). The [BITSTRING] operator takes a list of fields, similar to the list of fields for matching: {[ let version = 1 ;; let data = 10 ;; let bits = BITSTRING { version : 4; data : 12 } ;; (* Constructs a 16-bit bitstring with the first four bits containing the integer 1, and the following 12 bits containing the integer 10, arranged in network byte order. *) Bitmatch.hexdump_bitstring stdout bits ;; (* Prints: 00000000 10 0a |.. | *) ]} The format of each field is the same as for pattern fields (see {{:#patternfieldreference}Pattern field reference section}), and things like computed length fields, fixed value fields, insertion of bitstrings within bitstrings, etc. are all supported. {3 Construction exception} The [BITSTRING] operator may throw a {!Construct_failure} exception at runtime. Runtime errors include: - int field length not in the range \[1..64\] - a bitstring with a length declared which doesn't have the same length at runtime - trying to insert an out of range value into an int field (eg. an unsigned int field which is 2 bits wide can only take values in the range \[0..3\]). {2:integertypes Integer types} Integer types are mapped to OCaml types [bool], [int], [int32] or [int64] using a system which tries to ensure that (a) the types are reasonably predictable and (b) the most efficient type is preferred. The rules are slightly different depending on whether the bit length expression in the field is a compile-time constant or a computed expression. Detection of compile-time constants is quite simplistic so only an immediate, simple integer is recognised as a constant and anything else is considered a computed expression, even expressions such as [5-2] which are obviously (to our eyes) constant. In any case the bit size of an integer is limited to the range \[1..64\]. This is detected as a compile-time error if that is possible, otherwise a runtime check is added which can throw an [Invalid_argument] exception. The mapping is thus: {v Bit size ---- OCaml type ---- Constant Computed expression 1 bool int64 2..31 int int64 32 int32 int64 33..64 int64 int64 v} A possible future extension may allow people with 64 bit computers to specify a more optimal [int] type for bit sizes in the range [32..63]. If this was implemented then such code {i could not even be compiled} on 32 bit platforms, so it would limit portability. Another future extension may be to allow computed expressions to assert min/max range for the bit size, allowing a more efficient data type than int64 to be used. (Of course under such circumstances there would still need to be a runtime check to enforce the size). {2 Compiling} Using the compiler directly you can do: {v ocamlc -I +bitmatch \ -pp "camlp4o `ocamlc -where`/bitmatch/pa_bitmatch.cmo" \ bitmatch.cma test.ml -o test v} Simpler method using findlib: {v ocamlfind ocamlc \ -package bitmatch.syntax -syntax bitmatch.syntax \ -linkpkg test.ml -o test v} {2 Security and type safety} {3 Security on input} The main concerns for input are buffer overflows and denial of service. It is believed that this library is robust against attempted buffer overflows. In addition to OCaml's normal bounds checks, we check that field lengths are >= 0, and many additional checks. Denial of service attacks are more problematic. We only work forwards through the bitstring, thus computation will eventually terminate. As for computed lengths, code such as this is thought to be secure: {[ bitmatch bits with | { len : 64; buffer : Int64.to_int len : bitstring } -> ]} The [len] field can be set arbitrarily large by an attacker, but when pattern-matching against the [buffer] field this merely causes a test such as [if len <= remaining_size] to fail. Even if the length is chosen so that [buffer] bitstring is allocated, the allocation of sub-bitstrings is efficient and doesn't involve an arbitary-sized allocation or any copying. However the above does not necessarily apply to strings used in matching, since they may cause the library to use the {!Bitmatch.string_of_bitstring} function, which allocates a string. So you should take care if you use the [string] type particularly with a computed length that is derived from external input. The main protection against attackers should be to ensure that the main program will only read input bitstrings up to a certain length, which is outside the scope of this library. {3 Security on output} As with the input side, computed lengths are believed to be safe. For example: {[ let len = read_untrusted_source () in let buffer = allocate_bitstring () in BITSTRING { buffer : len : bitstring } ]} This code merely causes a check that buffer's length is the same as [len]. However the program function [allocate_bitstring] must refuse to allocate an oversized buffer (but that is outside the scope of this library). {3 Order of evaluation} In [bitmatch] statements, fields are evaluated left to right. Note that the when-clause is evaluated {i last}, so if you are relying on the when-clause to filter cases then your code may do a lot of extra and unncessary pattern-matching work on fields which may never be needed just to evaluate the when-clause. You can usually rearrange the code to do only the first part of the match, followed by the when-clause, followed by a second inner bitmatch. {3 Safety} The current implementation is believed to be fully type-safe, and makes compile and run-time checks where appropriate. If you find a case where a check is missing please submit a bug report or a patch. {2 Limits} These are thought to be the current limits: Integers: \[1..64\] bits. Bitstrings (32 bit platforms): maximum length is limited by the string size, ie. 16 MBytes. Bitstrings (64 bit platforms): maximum length is thought to be limited by the string size, ie. effectively unlimited. Bitstrings must be loaded into memory before we can match against them. Thus available memory may be considered a limit for some applications. {2:reference Reference} {3 Types} *) type bitstring = string * int * int (** [bitstring] is the basic type used to store bitstrings. The type contains the underlying data (a string), the current bit offset within the string and the current bit length of the string (counting from the bit offset). Note that the offset and length are in {b bits}, not bytes. Normally you don't need to use the bitstring type directly, since there are functions and syntax extensions which hide the details. See also {!bitstring_of_string}, {!bitstring_of_file}, {!hexdump_bitstring}, {!bitstring_length}. *) (** {3 Exceptions} *) exception Construct_failure of string * string * int * int (** [Construct_failure (message, file, line, char)] may be raised by the [BITSTRING] constructor. Common reasons are that values are out of range of the fields that contain them, or that computed lengths are impossible (eg. negative length bitfields). [message] is the error message. [file], [line] and [char] point to the original source location of the [BITSTRING] constructor that failed. *) (** {3 Bitstrings} *) val empty_bitstring : bitstring (** [empty_bitstring] is the empty, zero-length bitstring. *) val create_bitstring : int -> bitstring (** [create_bitstring n] creates an [n] bit bitstring containing all zeroes. *) val make_bitstring : int -> char -> bitstring (** [make_bitstring n c] creates an [n] bit bitstring containing the repeated 8 bit pattern in [c]. For example, [make_bitstring 16 '\x5a'] will create the bitstring [0x5a5a] or in binary [0101 1010 0101 1010]. Note that the length is in bits, not bytes. *) val bitstring_of_string : string -> bitstring (** [bitstring_of_string str] creates a bitstring of length [String.length str * 8] (bits) containing the bits in [str]. Note that the bitstring uses [str] as the underlying string (see the representation of {!bitstring}) so you should not change [str] after calling this. *) val bitstring_of_file : string -> bitstring (** [bitstring_of_file filename] loads the named file into a bitstring. *) val bitstring_of_chan : in_channel -> bitstring (** [bitstring_of_chan chan] loads the contents of the input channel [chan] as a bitstring. The length of the final bitstring is determined by the remaining input in [chan], but will always be a multiple of 8 bits. See also {!bitstring_of_chan_max}. *) val bitstring_of_chan_max : in_channel -> int -> bitstring (** [bitstring_of_chan_max chan max] works like {!bitstring_of_chan} but will only read up to [max] bytes from the channel (or fewer if the end of input occurs before that). *) val bitstring_of_file_descr : Unix.file_descr -> bitstring (** [bitstring_of_file_descr fd] loads the contents of the file descriptor [fd] as a bitstring. See also {!bitstring_of_chan}, {!bitstring_of_file_descr_max}. *) val bitstring_of_file_descr_max : Unix.file_descr -> int -> bitstring (** [bitstring_of_file_descr_max fd max] works like {!bitstring_of_file_descr} but will only read up to [max] bytes from the channel (or fewer if the end of input occurs before that). *) val bitstring_length : bitstring -> int (** [bitstring_length bitstring] returns the length of the bitstring in bits. *) val string_of_bitstring : bitstring -> string (** [string_of_bitstring bitstring] converts a bitstring to a string (eg. to allow comparison). This function is inefficient. In the best case when the bitstring is nicely byte-aligned we do a [String.sub] operation. If the bitstring isn't aligned then this involves a lot of bit twiddling and is particularly inefficient. *) (** {3 Printing bitstrings} *) val hexdump_bitstring : out_channel -> bitstring -> unit (** [hexdump_bitstring chan bitstring] prints the bitstring to the output channel in a format similar to the Unix command [hexdump -C]. *) (** {3 Bitstring buffer} *) module Buffer : sig type t val create : unit -> t val contents : t -> bitstring val add_bits : t -> string -> int -> unit val add_bit : t -> bool -> unit val add_byte : t -> int -> unit end (** Buffers are mainly used by the [BITSTRING] constructor, but may also be useful for end users. They work much like the standard library [Buffer] module. *) (** {3 Miscellaneous} *) val debug : bool ref (** Set this variable to true to enable extended debugging. This only works if debugging was also enabled in the [pa_bitmatch.ml] file at compile time, otherwise it does nothing. *) (**/**) (* Private functions, called from generated code. Do not use * these directly - they are not safe. *) val extract_bitstring : string -> int -> int -> int -> bitstring * int * int val extract_remainder : string -> int -> int -> bitstring * int * int val extract_bit : string -> int -> int -> int -> bool * int * int val extract_char_unsigned : string -> int -> int -> int -> int * int * int val extract_int_be_unsigned : string -> int -> int -> int -> int * int * int val extract_int_le_unsigned : string -> int -> int -> int -> int * int * int val extract_int32_be_unsigned : string -> int -> int -> int -> int32 * int * int val extract_int32_le_unsigned : string -> int -> int -> int -> int32 * int * int val extract_int64_be_unsigned : string -> int -> int -> int -> int64 * int * int val extract_int64_le_unsigned : string -> int -> int -> int -> int64 * int * int val construct_bit : Buffer.t -> bool -> int -> exn -> unit val construct_char_unsigned : Buffer.t -> int -> int -> exn -> unit val construct_int_be_unsigned : Buffer.t -> int -> int -> exn -> unit val construct_int32_be_unsigned : Buffer.t -> int32 -> int -> exn -> unit val construct_int64_be_unsigned : Buffer.t -> int64 -> int -> exn -> unit val construct_string : Buffer.t -> string -> unit