blacklist_imports

Blacklist various Python imports known to be dangerous

This blacklist data checks for a number of Python modules known to have possible security implications. The following blacklist tests are run against any import statements or calls encountered in the scanned code base.

Note that the XML rules listed here are mostly based off of Christian Heimes’ work on defusedxml: https://pypi.org/project/defusedxml/

B401: import_telnetlib

A telnet-related module is being imported. Telnet is considered insecure. Use SSH or some other encrypted protocol.

ID Name Imports Severity
B401 import_telnetlib
  • telnetlib
 high

B402: import_ftplib

A FTP-related module is being imported. FTP is considered insecure. Use SSH/SFTP/SCP or some other encrypted protocol.

ID Name Imports Severity
B402 import_ftplib
  • ftplib
 high

B403: import_pickle

Consider possible security implications associated with these modules.

ID Name Imports Severity
B403 import_pickle
  • pickle
  • cPickle
  • dill
  • shelve
 low

B404: import_subprocess

Consider possible security implications associated with these modules.

ID Name Imports Severity
B404 import_subprocess
  • subprocess
 low

B405: import_xml_etree

Using various methods to parse untrusted XML data is known to be vulnerable to XML attacks. Replace vulnerable imports with the equivalent defusedxml package, or make sure defusedxml.defuse_stdlib() is called.

ID Name Imports Severity
B405 import_xml_etree
  • xml.etree.cElementTree
  • xml.etree.ElementTree
 low

B406: import_xml_sax

Using various methods to parse untrusted XML data is known to be vulnerable to XML attacks. Replace vulnerable imports with the equivalent defusedxml package, or make sure defusedxml.defuse_stdlib() is called.

ID Name Imports Severity
B406 import_xml_sax
  • xml.sax
 low

B407: import_xml_expat

Using various methods to parse untrusted XML data is known to be vulnerable to XML attacks. Replace vulnerable imports with the equivalent defusedxml package, or make sure defusedxml.defuse_stdlib() is called.

ID Name Imports Severity
B407 import_xml_expat
  • xml.dom.expatbuilder
 low

B408: import_xml_minidom

Using various methods to parse untrusted XML data is known to be vulnerable to XML attacks. Replace vulnerable imports with the equivalent defusedxml package, or make sure defusedxml.defuse_stdlib() is called.

ID Name Imports Severity
B408 import_xml_minidom
  • xml.dom.minidom
 low

B409: import_xml_pulldom

Using various methods to parse untrusted XML data is known to be vulnerable to XML attacks. Replace vulnerable imports with the equivalent defusedxml package, or make sure defusedxml.defuse_stdlib() is called.

ID Name Imports Severity
B409 import_xml_pulldom
  • xml.dom.pulldom
 low

B410: import_lxml

Using various methods to parse untrusted XML data is known to be vulnerable to XML attacks. Replace vulnerable imports with the equivalent defusedxml package.

ID Name Imports Severity
B410 import_lxml
  • lxml
 low

B411: import_xmlrpclib

XMLRPC is particularly dangerous as it is also concerned with communicating data over a network. Use defused.xmlrpc.monkey_patch() function to monkey-patch xmlrpclib and mitigate remote XML attacks.

ID Name Imports Severity
B411 import_xmlrpclib
  • xmlrpclib
 high

B412: import_httpoxy

httpoxy is a set of vulnerabilities that affect application code running in CGI, or CGI-like environments. The use of CGI for web applications should be avoided to prevent this class of attack. More details are available at https://httpoxy.org/.

ID Name Imports Severity
B412 import_httpoxy
  • wsgiref.handlers.CGIHandler
  • twisted.web.twcgi.CGIScript
 high

B413: import_pycrypto

pycrypto library is known to have publicly disclosed buffer overflow vulnerability https://github.com/dlitz/pycrypto/issues/176. It is no longer actively maintained and has been deprecated in favor of pyca/cryptography library.

ID Name Imports Severity
B413 import_pycrypto
  • Crypto.Cipher
  • Crypto.Hash
  • Crypto.IO
  • Crypto.Protocol
  • Crypto.PublicKey
  • Crypto.Random
  • Crypto.Signature
  • Crypto.Util
 high

B414: import_pycryptodome

This import blacklist has been removed. The information here has been left for historical purposes.

pycryptodome is a direct fork of pycrypto that has not fully addressed the issues inherent in PyCrypto. It seems to exist, mainly, as an API compatible continuation of pycrypto and should be deprecated in favor of pyca/cryptography which has more support among the Python community.

ID Name Imports Severity
B414 import_pycryptodome
  • Cryptodome.Cipher
  • Cryptodome.Hash
  • Cryptodome.IO
  • Cryptodome.Protocol
  • Cryptodome.PublicKey
  • Cryptodome.Random
  • Cryptodome.Signature
  • Cryptodome.Util
 high

B415: import_pyghmi

An IPMI-related module is being imported. IPMI is considered insecure. Use an encrypted protocol.

ID Name Imports Severity
B415 import_pyghmi
  • pyghmi
 high