feat(unicode): E1 — extend hidden-Unicode detection to PUA-A and PUA-B

Critical-review §4 E1 finding: pre-v7.2.0 the Unicode-stego detector
(`containsUnicodeTags`) covered only U+E0001-E007F (Tag block). Private
Use Areas — also invisible in most terminals and surviving normalization
— were not detected. Attackers could encode payloads in PUA codepoints
that pass through `scanForInjection` undetected.

Coverage extended to:
- U+E0001-E007F  Unicode Tag block       (existing — DeepMind kat. 1)
- U+F0000-FFFFD  Supplementary PUA-A      (NEW — E1)
- U+100000-10FFFD Supplementary PUA-B     (NEW — E1)

Detection-only for PUA: PUA characters have NO standard ASCII mapping,
so `decodeUnicodeTags` leaves them unchanged. Detection alone is
sufficient — `scanForInjection` emits HIGH on any presence, regardless
of decoded content.

Function name `containsUnicodeTags` preserved for back-compat. All
existing call sites (injection-patterns.mjs:259, etc.) work unchanged.
Semantically the function is now "containsHiddenUnicode".

Tests: +21 cases in tests/lib/string-utils-hidden-unicode.test.mjs:
- 5 Tag-block regression guards
- 4 PUA-A range cases (start, just-inside, end, buried-in-ASCII)
- 3 PUA-B range cases
- 5 boundary cases (gap U+E0080-EFFFF, U+10FFFE noncharacter, emoji,
  CJK, Latin Extended — all must be FALSE)
- 4 decodeUnicodeTags passthrough cases (PUA-A unchanged, PUA-B
  unchanged, Tag block still decodes, mixed Tag+PUA)

Suite: 1596 → 1617 (+21). All green.
This commit is contained in:
Kjell Tore Guttormsen 2026-04-29 14:18:49 +02:00
commit 6cef80c640
2 changed files with 166 additions and 3 deletions

View file

@ -292,6 +292,14 @@ export function collapseLetterSpacing(s) {
* Unicode Tags (U+E0000 block) can encode invisible ASCII text inside
* what appears to be empty or normal-looking strings.
* E.g., U+E0069 U+E0067 U+E006E "ign"
*
* **Note (E1, v7.2.0):** Tag-block characters decode to ASCII via the
* `cp - 0xE0000` mapping. Private Use Areas (PUA-A: U+F0000-FFFFD;
* PUA-B: U+100000-10FFFD) are also detected as hidden Unicode by
* `containsUnicodeTags`, but they have NO standard ASCII mapping
* they pass through this function unchanged. Detection of PUA presence
* is sufficient (HIGH advisory in scanForInjection), no decode needed.
*
* @param {string} s
* @returns {string}
*/
@ -323,15 +331,33 @@ export function decodeUnicodeTags(s) {
}
/**
* Check if a string contains Unicode Tag characters (U+E0001-E007F).
* Presence of these characters is suspicious regardless of decoded content.
* Check if a string contains hidden-Unicode characters that are commonly
* used for steganography in prompts and tool output.
*
* Covered ranges:
* - U+E0001-E007F Unicode Tag block (DeepMind traps kat. 1)
* - U+F0000-FFFFD Supplementary Private Use Area-A (E1, v7.2.0)
* - U+100000-10FFFD Supplementary Private Use Area-B (E1, v7.2.0)
*
* Presence of any of these characters is suspicious regardless of
* decoded content they are invisible in most terminals and survive
* normalization. The function name `containsUnicodeTags` is preserved
* for back-compat (existing call sites in injection-patterns.mjs and
* elsewhere); semantically it is now "containsHiddenUnicode".
*
* Tag-block characters decode to ASCII via `decodeUnicodeTags`. PUA
* characters do NOT they have no standard mapping and remain
* detection-only.
*
* @param {string} s
* @returns {boolean}
*/
export function containsUnicodeTags(s) {
for (const ch of s) {
const cp = ch.codePointAt(0);
if (cp >= 0xE0001 && cp <= 0xE007F) return true;
if (cp >= 0xE0001 && cp <= 0xE007F) return true; // Tag block
if (cp >= 0xF0000 && cp <= 0xFFFFD) return true; // PUA-A (E1)
if (cp >= 0x100000 && cp <= 0x10FFFD) return true; // PUA-B (E1)
}
return false;
}

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@ -0,0 +1,137 @@
// string-utils-hidden-unicode.test.mjs — E1 (v7.2.0) — extended hidden-Unicode detection
//
// Critical-review §4 E1 finding: pre-v7.2.0 the Unicode-stego detector
// covered only U+E0001-E007F (Tag block). PUA-A (U+F0000-FFFFD) and
// PUA-B (U+100000-10FFFD) — also invisible in most terminals — were not
// detected. Attackers can encode payloads in PUA codepoints that survive
// normalization and pass through `scanForInjection` undetected.
//
// E1 fix: extend `containsUnicodeTags` to cover both PUAs. PUA chars are
// detection-only — no ASCII mapping exists, so `decodeUnicodeTags` leaves
// them unchanged.
import { describe, it } from 'node:test';
import assert from 'node:assert/strict';
import {
containsUnicodeTags,
decodeUnicodeTags,
} from '../../scanners/lib/string-utils.mjs';
describe('containsUnicodeTags — Tag block (regression guard)', () => {
it('returns true for U+E0001 (start of Tag block)', () => {
assert.equal(containsUnicodeTags('hello' + String.fromCodePoint(0xE0001)), true);
});
it('returns true for U+E0069 ("i" tag)', () => {
assert.equal(containsUnicodeTags(String.fromCodePoint(0xE0069)), true);
});
it('returns true for U+E007F (end of Tag block)', () => {
assert.equal(containsUnicodeTags(String.fromCodePoint(0xE007F)), true);
});
it('returns false for plain ASCII', () => {
assert.equal(containsUnicodeTags('plain text'), false);
});
it('returns false for empty string', () => {
assert.equal(containsUnicodeTags(''), false);
});
});
describe('containsUnicodeTags — PUA-A range (E1)', () => {
it('returns true for U+F0000 (start of PUA-A)', () => {
assert.equal(containsUnicodeTags('hello' + String.fromCodePoint(0xF0000)), true);
});
it('returns true for U+F0001 (just inside PUA-A)', () => {
assert.equal(containsUnicodeTags(String.fromCodePoint(0xF0001)), true);
});
it('returns true for U+FFFFD (end of PUA-A)', () => {
assert.equal(containsUnicodeTags(String.fromCodePoint(0xFFFFD)), true);
});
it('returns true for PUA-A char buried in ASCII', () => {
const payload = 'normal text' + String.fromCodePoint(0xF0042) + 'more text';
assert.equal(containsUnicodeTags(payload), true);
});
});
describe('containsUnicodeTags — PUA-B range (E1)', () => {
it('returns true for U+100000 (start of PUA-B)', () => {
assert.equal(containsUnicodeTags('hello' + String.fromCodePoint(0x100000)), true);
});
it('returns true for U+100001 (just inside PUA-B)', () => {
assert.equal(containsUnicodeTags(String.fromCodePoint(0x100001)), true);
});
it('returns true for U+10FFFD (end of PUA-B, just below noncharacter)', () => {
assert.equal(containsUnicodeTags(String.fromCodePoint(0x10FFFD)), true);
});
});
describe('containsUnicodeTags — boundary cases (E1)', () => {
it('returns false for U+EFFFF (just below PUA-A start)', () => {
// U+E0080 to U+EFFFF — a gap between Tag block and PUA-A
assert.equal(containsUnicodeTags(String.fromCodePoint(0xEFFFF)), false);
});
it('returns false for U+E0080 (just past Tag block end)', () => {
assert.equal(containsUnicodeTags(String.fromCodePoint(0xE0080)), false);
});
it('returns false for U+E0000 (just below Tag block start)', () => {
assert.equal(containsUnicodeTags(String.fromCodePoint(0xE0000)), false);
});
it('returns false for U+10FFFE (noncharacter — outside PUA-B)', () => {
// U+10FFFE and U+10FFFF are noncharacters, not PUA. Out of range.
assert.equal(containsUnicodeTags(String.fromCodePoint(0x10FFFE)), false);
});
it('returns false for emoji and other plane chars', () => {
assert.equal(containsUnicodeTags('🚀'), false); // U+1F680
assert.equal(containsUnicodeTags('日本'), false); // CJK
assert.equal(containsUnicodeTags('café'), false); // Latin Extended
});
});
describe('decodeUnicodeTags — PUA passthrough (E1)', () => {
it('leaves PUA-A characters unchanged (no ASCII mapping)', () => {
const puaChar = String.fromCodePoint(0xF0001);
const input = `before${puaChar}after`;
const result = decodeUnicodeTags(input);
assert.equal(result, input);
});
it('leaves PUA-B characters unchanged', () => {
const puaBChar = String.fromCodePoint(0x100042);
const input = `before${puaBChar}after`;
const result = decodeUnicodeTags(input);
assert.equal(result, input);
});
it('still decodes Tag block (regression guard)', () => {
// U+E0069 U+E0067 U+E006E → "ign"
const tags = String.fromCodePoint(0xE0069) + String.fromCodePoint(0xE0067) + String.fromCodePoint(0xE006E);
const result = decodeUnicodeTags(tags);
assert.equal(result, 'ign');
});
it('handles mixed Tag + PUA — decodes Tag, passes PUA through', () => {
// "i" tag + PUA-A char + "g" tag + "n" tag
const tagI = String.fromCodePoint(0xE0069);
const puaA = String.fromCodePoint(0xF0042);
const tagG = String.fromCodePoint(0xE0067);
const tagN = String.fromCodePoint(0xE006E);
const input = tagI + puaA + tagG + tagN;
const result = decodeUnicodeTags(input);
// Tag chars are flushed when a non-tag (PUA) character is encountered.
// Implementation detail: result is `i${puaA}gn`.
assert.ok(result.includes('i'), `expected 'i' in result, got: ${[...result].map(c => 'U+' + c.codePointAt(0).toString(16)).join(' ')}`);
assert.ok(result.includes(puaA), 'PUA char must remain undecoded');
assert.ok(result.includes('gn') || result.includes('g') && result.includes('n'), 'gn tags must decode');
});
});