MET02-J. Validate method parameters

Validating method parameters ensures that any operations that use the method's arguments yield consistent results. Failure to do so can result in incorrect calculations, runtime exceptions, violation of class invariants and inconsistent object state.

It if often assumed that private methods do not require any validation because they are not directly accessible from code present outside the class. This assumption is misleading as programming errors often arise as a result of legit code misbehaving in unanticipated ways. For example, a tainted value may propagate from a public API to one of the internal methods via its parameters.

Assertions should not be used to validate parameters of public methods. According to the Java Language Specification [[JLS 2005]], Section 14.10 "The assert Statement"

Along similar lines, assertions should not be used for argument-checking in public methods. Argument-checking is typically part of the contract of a method, and this contract must be upheld whether assertions are enabled or disabled.

Another problem with using assertions for argument checking is that erroneous arguments should result in an appropriate runtime exception (such as IllegalArgumentException, IndexOutOfBoundsException or NullPointerException). An assertion failure will not throw an appropriate exception. Again, it is not illegal to use assertions for argument checking on public methods, but it is generally inappropriate.

Also note that any defensive copying must be performed before validating the parameters and the checks must be performed on the copies instead of the original parameters. (See guideline SER07-J. Make defensive copies of private mutable components.)

Noncompliant Code Example

The method AbsAdd() takes the absolute value of parameters x and y and returns their sum. It does not perform any validation on the input and consequently, can produce incorrect results because of integer overflow or a negative number being returned from the computation Math.abs(Integer.MIN_VALUE).

public static int AbsAdd(int x, int y) {
  return Math.abs(x) + Math.abs(y);
}
AbsAdd(Integer.MIN_VALUE, 1);

Noncompliant Code Example

This noncompliant code example uses assertions to validate arguments of a public method.

public static int AbsAdd(int x, int y) {
  assert x != Integer.MIN_VALUE;
  assert y != Integer.MIN_VALUE;
  assert ((x <= Integer.MAX_VALUE - y));
  assert ((x >= Integer.MIN_VALUE - y));
  return Math.abs(x) + Math.abs(y);
}

Compliant Solution

This compliant solution validates the input to Math.abs() to ensure it is not Integer.MIN_VALUE and checks for integer overflow. The result of the computation can also be stored in a long variable to avoid overflow. However, in this case, the upper bound of the addition is required to be representable as the type int.

public static int AbsAdd(int x, int y) {
  if((x == Integer.MIN_VALUE || y == Integer.MIN_VALUE) ||
    (x>0 && y>0 && (x > Integer.MAX_VALUE - y)) || 
    (x<0 && y<0 && (x < Integer.MIN_VALUE - y)))
      throw new IllegalArgumentException();

  return Math.abs(x) + Math.abs(y);
}

Risk Assessment

Failing to validate method parameters can result in inconsistent computations, runtime exceptions, and control flow vulnerabilities.

Automated Detection

TODO

Related Vulnerabilities

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

Bibliography

[[JLS 2005]] 14.10 The assert Statement
[[Bloch 2008]] Item 38: Check parameters for validity
[[ESA 2005]] Rule 68: Explicitly check method parameters for validity, and throw an adequate exception in case they are not valid. Do not use the assert statement for this purpose
[[Daconta 2003]] Item 7: My Assertions Are Not Gratuitous

MET01-J. Avoid ambiguous uses of overloading      16. Methods (MET)