Security Chasms of WASM [pdf] | Hacker News Reader

Security Chasms of WASM [pdf]

i.blackhat.com

78 pointsrfinney9 comments

Hey! I helped write this paper. Let me know if you have questions about it.

As far as I can tell, these exploits have very little to do with WASM, and more to do with exploits around the toolchains and code running on it.

If you're looking for bugs in WASM implementations, take a look at https://www.blackhat.com/us-18/briefings/schedule/#the-probl... (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17782552 previously posted a week ago)

Our paper/talk was more about the security implications of using WASM in your stack.

Are you talking about bugs or are you talking about inherent security vulnerabilities in the design?

Less "inherent vulnerabilities" than "If you're using a memory unsafe language (like C), the protections WASM gives you aren't enough to mitigate every possible vuln you might have had in your C code"

The WASM platform does provide some really cool protections, but it's not a silver bullet, you still need to fix your C code.

> The WASM platform does provide some really cool protections, but it's not a silver bullet, you still need to fix your C code.

I mean, the way you're phrasing it, that's true of every system. IIRC seL4 had a couple bugs where the code _and_ the formal model both got it wrong in the same way, and it therefore passed the proof.

The guarantees that wasm attempts to provide are that it's ok for me as a user to run random code in a wasm sandbox, rather than that code is inherently better at it's internal security by being in a sandbox.

ie. wasm doesn't attempt to make the developer's job any easier, other than making it more likely that users will be willing to run their code.

Like, I don't think my c code is any safer when I run it on a system with a hypervisor.

> IIRC seL4 had a couple bugs where the code _and_ the formal model both got it wrong in the same way, and it therefore passed the proof.

I haven't heard this one yet. How did they find it, then?

This paper is important. It doesn't point out anything that you shouldn't already know if you're an experienced systems programmer, but may be a good reminder that WebAssembly's sandbox isn't the last word on security. You still need to be on alert for things that can trigger XSS, which can be easier when you have a memory unsafe language like C or C++ in your stack.

There's a good point in there about how node.js is exposed to all these vulnerabilities too.

Who had abbreviated WebAssembly as WASM? I know I know nobody use Watcom assembler (wasm) now, but still.

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