Round 3 of the 0.10.1 review, and the finding is the pattern the three rounds
share: each bound an OUTPUT, and the bomb stepped one link along. The
declared size, then the first `FlateDecode`, then every `FlateDecode` -- and
then a link this package had documented as safe.
`ASCII85Decode` was classed as bounded "by its own input because it shrinks".
It quadruples: `z` is the shorthand for four zero bytes. And the output was
never the cost -- `base64.a85decode` appends one 4-byte object per group to a
list, about a hundred bytes of memory per byte of INPUT (101.4x at 1 MiB,
96.1x at 4 MiB, 94.5x at 16 MiB on CPython 3.14).
Paired subprocesses, idle machine, both sides from PINNED trees, the document
built once by a third process and read from a file because `ru_maxrss` never
falls and `b"z" * 64 MiB` alone costs 171 MB:
[/Fl /A85] z x 32 Mi 33 475 B CARRIED 3 261 599 744 -> too_large 42 070 016
[/Fl /A85] z x 64 Mi 66 090 B CARRIED 6 461 558 784 -> too_large 40 280 064
[/A85] z x 8 Mi 8.4 MB CARRIED 933 085 184 -> too_large 62 484 480
[/Fl /A85 /Fl] z x 32 Mi 33 488 B samples_invalid 3 519 180 800 -> too_large 43 438 080
The picture was CARRIED in three of the four: not a bound that fired late, no
bound at all. Doubling the `z` run trebles the old cost and leaves the new one
where it was.
WHY THIS FORM. `assets.MAX_FILTER_DECODE_BYTES` (512 MiB) is what decoding ONE
link may cost -- a separate number from `MAX_IMAGE_BYTES`, because that one
bounds the picture and this one bounds producing it. `FlateDecode` is measured
as it is paid; every other permitted filter carries a MEASURED cost ratio
(`assets.PDF_FILTER_COST_RATIO`) checked against its input BEFORE its decoder
is called, since those decoders take a whole string and return a whole string.
A filter with no ratio is refused unread. The budget TRAVELS: a deflate link
is inflated under the smaller of the picture's bound and what the next link's
decoder may be handed, or `[/Fl /A85]` pays 256 MiB for a refusal.
A chunked ASCII85 decoder written here was the alternative and was FELLED: it
would bound `_check_stream_cost` and not the run, because `stream.get_data()`
decodes the whole chain again with pdfminer's own decoder, and it would make
this package rather than pdfminer the authority on an image's bytes. The cap
is the only number that bounds that. `resource.setrlimit(RLIMIT_AS)` was
MEASURED before anything was built on it, as the order required, and is not
usable: Darwin 26.6.2 raises `ValueError: current limit exceeds maximum limit`
and does not enforce it. No child-process cap exists.
THE CAP IS READ OFF THE CORPORA, the posture `MAX_IMAGE_PIXELS` has: over the
9 668 image objects of the 77 PDFs on this machine, 16 decode through an
ASCII85 link and the largest input to one is 450 739 bytes, against a cap of
about 5.0 MB.
A PROPERTY TEST REPLACES THE LIST OF KNOWN SHAPES: every chain of length 1-3
over the ten filters pdfminer decodes, 1 110 of 1 110, both payload fills,
each delivered under the bound or refused with a published code and never paid
for on the way (`tracemalloc`, which counts allocations and is not disturbed
by load). Known-positive beside it: 258 of 258 chains over the permitted
filters still carry a small image.
MAJOR -- the backstop had no test. `check_payload` at the end of
`_check_stream_cost` could be deleted with the whole suite green, because the
second one after `get_data()` gives the same code one step later. The two
differ in whether the payment was made, so the test asserts `get_data` was
never called.
10 OF 10 MUTANTS KILLED, control green, each killer named in the report. Four
survived a first pass and two tests exist because of it.
NOT ONE PICTURE CHANGES HANDS, MEASURED BY NAME: `_pdf_images` over every PDF
on this machine from both pinned trees -- 9 306 -> 9 306 carried over 77
files, 50 -> 50 on R761, 0 of 78 files moving a count and 0 moving a code.
R761 also settles a question raised while this order was open: 50 objects, 29
[/DCTDecode], 21 [/FlateDecode], 0 ASCII85 links -- so round 2's count of 580
`[/FlateDecode /ASCII85Decode]` objects is reproducible from nothing on this
machine. It changes no decision; a bomb shape does not need a corpus.
Version stays 0.10.1, no tag. README, CHANGELOG, CLAUDE.md and errors.py
corrected TO what the code does; the round-2 report carries a correction block
rather than a rewrite. Report:
docs/2026-09-18-utgangsbudsjett-per-ledd.md
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The two findings of the 18.09 PM checkpoint of `0f308c1`. Red tests landed
first in `3b587ea`; this is what turns them green.
BLOCKER -- `_check_inflated` read `filters[0]`, measured that one link and
returned, which is not a bound: a PDF decodes a stream through a LIST of
filters. Measured in paired subprocesses from two pinned trees, idle machine:
[/FlateDecode] 400 MB 408 516 B 59 232 256 -> 62 017 536 B
[/FlateDecode x2] 400 MB 1 636 B 886 554 624 -> 52 367 360 B
[/FlateDecode x3] 400 MB 1 070 B 889 393 152 -> 61 390 848 B
[/FlateDecode x2] 1,2 GB 2 927 B 2 567 204 864 -> 60 403 712 B
542 000x the file at two links, and the picture WAS refused at the end -- by
`check_payload` after `get_data()`, once the memory was spent. The single-link
row is the control and does not move. It also left the 16 corpus objects behind
an `[/ASCII85Decode /FlateDecode]` chain unmeasured, since `filters[0]` is not
`FlateDecode` there.
`_check_stream_cost` walks every link. THREE CLASSES and no fourth
(`extract.bounded_pdf_filters`, pinned by a test): `FlateDecode` MEASURED, a
link with another expanding link behind it inflated under the same bound and
handed on; `ASCII85Decode`/`ASCIIHexDecode` bounded by their own input because
they SHRINK; `DCTDecode`/`JPXDecode`/`JBIG2Decode` PASS THROUGH. Everything
else -- `LZWDecode`, `RunLengthDecode`, `CCITTFaxDecode`, `/Crypt`, anything
written later -- is refused UNREAD with a new code `asset_pdf_unbounded`,
decided before the FIRST link is decoded so a document cannot make the run pay
for the links in front of the one we cannot bound. An encrypted stream is
deciphered and then measured, where `stream.decipher is not None` used to
return unmeasured; 0 of 5 142 objects here are in an encrypted document, which
is why nothing caught it.
NOT ONE PICTURE CHANGES HANDS, AND IT IS MEASURED BY NAME. Every PDF on this
machine -- 78 documents, K2 in both trinn1 and trinn2, the shipped fixtures and
R761 -- run through `_pdf_images` page by page from both pinned trees:
images carried 9 356 -> 9 356
documents losing one 0 of 78
documents gaining one 0 of 78
asset_pdf_unsupported 322 -> 314
asset_pdf_unbounded 0 -> 8
The 8 are the 4 `CCITTFaxDecode` stencil masks (`/ImageMask true`,
`/BitsPerComponent 1`), counted twice because trinn1 and trinn2 hold the same
document. They were refused before and are refused now, one step earlier and
under a code that says why.
MAJOR -- `check_payload(len(data))` after `get_data()` is the counted refusal
four documentation surfaces point at, and deleting exactly that line passed all
2 132 tests. It is reachable through a stream pdfminer has ALREADY decoded
(`decode()` sets `rawdata` to `None`), which is now the ONLY case outside the
bound and has a test.
Eight mutations, one line each, every one DEAD, with the unmutated tree run
first as the control: first-link-only, loop dropped, inequality reversed,
encrypted skipped, backstop deleted, unknown filter passed through,
intermediate link not carried forward, whole check removed.
`tools/okf_accounting_gate.py` gains one line, the new code in
`REJECTION_CODES` -- what a rejection code requires and nothing more. Gate
unchanged: exit 1, GATE RED rows 2, 3, 6. Version stays 0.10.1, untagged.
Suite after `git add` against a clean tree: `uv run pytest -q` ->
2152 passed, 1 skipped (226 s). ruff, ruff format --check, mypy --strict clean.
Report: docs/2026-09-18-filterkjeden-og-backstoppen.md
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
