OBJ05-J. Write garbage collection friendly code

From a security point of view, Java's garbage collection feature provides significant benefits over traditional languages such as C and C++. The garbage collector (GC) is designed to automatically reclaim unreachable memory and as a result avoid memory leaks. While it is quite adept at performing this task, a malicious attacker can launch a Denial of Service (DoS) attack by inducing abnormal heap memory allocation as well as prolonged object retention.

For example, the GC needs to halt all executing threads to keep up with the incoming requests that command increased heap management in terms of space allocation. System throughput rapidly diminishes in this scenario. Real-time systems in particular, are vulnerable to a more subtle slow heap exhaustion DoS attack, perpetrated by stealing CPU cycles. An attacker can source memory allocations in a way that keeps resource consumption (such as CPU, battery power, memory) high without triggering an OutOfMemoryError.

Writing garbage collection friendly code helps restrict many attack avenues. The best practices have been collated and enumerated below.

Use Short-lived Immutable Objects

Since JDK 1.2, the new generational garbage collector has eased out memory allocation related costs to minimal levels, even lesser than C/C++. Deallocation has also become cheaper wherein the cost of garbage collection has become commensurate with the number of live objects in the younger generation and not the total number of objects allocated since the last run. Very few younger generation objects continue to live through to the next garbage collection cycle; the rest become ready to be collected in the impending collection cycle.

That said, with generational GCs it is advantageous to use short-lived immutable objects instead of long-lived mutable objects. Object pools are examples of the latter and should as a result be avoided to increase the garbage collector's efficiency. Moreover, object pools can create synchronization problems, deallocations have to be managed explicitly leading to dangers of dangling pointers and the size of the pool also plays a dominant role in critical code. Exceptions to this recommendation can be made when the allocation takes longer in comparison, such as while performing multiple joins across databases or while using objects that represent scarce resources such as thread pools and database connections.

Noncompliant Code Example

The code fragment demonstrated below (based on [[Goetz 04]]) shows a container, MutableHolder. In MutableHolder, the instance field value can be updated to reference a new value which makes its existence long-term.

public class MutableHolder {
  private Hashtable<Integer, String> value; // not final
  public Object getValue() { return value; }
  public void setValue(Hashtable<Integer, String> ht) { value = (Hashtable<Integer, String>)ht; }
}

This example also violates OBJ37-J. Do not return references to private data.

Compliant Solution

This compliant solution highlights a custom container called ImmutableHolder. When value is assigned in ImmutableHolder's constructor, it is a younger object that is referencing an older one (Hashtable<Integer, String> ht). This is a much better position to be in as far as the garbage collector is concerned. Note that a shallow copy is used in this case to preserve references to the older value.

public class MutableHolder {
  private Hashtable<Integer, String> value;
  // create defensive copy of inputs
  public Object getValue() { return value.clone(); }
  // create defensive copy while returning
  public void setValue(Hashtable<Integer, String> ht) { value = (Hashtable<Integer, String>)ht.clone(); }
}

Avoid Large Objects

The allocation for large objects is expensive and initializing (zeroing) also takes time. Sometimes large objects of different sizes can cause fragmentation issues or non compacting collect.

Nulling References

Noncompliant Code Example

Reference nulling to "help the garbage collector" is not necessary at all. In fact, it just adds clutter to the code and may introduce more bugs. Assigning null to local variables is also not very useful as the Java Just-In-Time compiler (JIT) can equivalently do a liveness analysis. A related bad practice is to use a finalizer to null out references, thereby befriending a huge performance hit.

int[] buffer = new int[100];
doSomething(buffer);
buffer = null  // no need for explicitly assigning null

Compliant Solution

The code snippet shown below improves on the discouraged practice by narrowing down the scope of the variable buffer so that the garbage collector collects the object as soon as it goes out of scope. [[Bloch 08]]

{ // limit the scope of buffer 
  int[] buffer = new int[100];
  doSomething(buffer);
}

Array based data structures such as ArrayLists are an exception as the programmer has to explicitly set only a few of the array elements to null to indicate their demise.

Do Not Explicitly Invoke the Garbage Collector

The garbage collector can be explicitly invoked by calling the System.gc() method. Even though the documentation says that it "Runs the garbage collector", there is no guarantee on when the garbage collector will actually run because the call only suggests a that it will subsequently execute. Other reasons include,

• Irresponsible use of this feature can severely degrade system performance as the garbage collector would not wait until ripe periods when it is safe to garbage collect without interrupting the program execution significantly.
• The application does not have enough information available on when to call System.gc().

In the Java Hotspot VM (default since JDK 1.2), System.gc() does an explicit garbage collection. Sometimes these calls are buried deep within libraries and are hard to trace. To ignore the call in such cases, use the flag -XX:+DisableExplicitGC. To avoid long pauses while doing a full GC, a less demanding concurrent cycle can be invoked by specifying the flag -XX:ExplicitGCInvokedConcurrent.

One exception to this rule may exist. The garbage collector can be explicitly called when the application goes through several phases like the initialization and the ready phase. The heap needs to be compacted between these phases. Given an uneventful period, System.gc() may be explicitly invoked in this case.

Risk Assessment

Misusing some garbage collection utilities can cause Denial Of Service (DoS) related issues and severe performance degradation.

Automated Detection

TODO

Related Vulnerabilities

Search for vulnerabilities resulting from the violation of this rule on the CERT website.

References

[[API 06]] Class System
[[Commes 07]] Garbage Collection Concepts and Programming Tips
[[Goetz 04]]
[[Lo 05]]
[[Bloch 08]] Item 6: "Eliminate obsolete object references"
[[MITRE 09]] CWE ID 405 "Asymmetric Resource Consumption (Amplification)"

OBJ04-J. Encapsulate the absence of an object by using a Null Object      07. Object Orientation (OBJ)      OBJ30-J. Do not ignore return values of methods that operate on immutable objects