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@pixeebot pixeebot bot commented Jun 27, 2025

This change hardens all instances of Runtime#exec() to offer protection against attack.

Left unchecked, Runtime#exec() can execute any arbitrary system command. If an attacker can control part of the strings used to as program paths or arguments, they could execute arbitrary programs, install malware, and anything else they could do if they had a shell open on the application host.

Our change introduces a sandbox which protects the application:

+ import io.github.pixee.security.SystemCommand;
  ...
- Process p = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(command);
+ Process p = SystemCommand.runCommand(Runtime.getRuntime(), command);

The default restrictions applied are the following:

  • Prevent command chaining. Many exploits work by injecting command separators and causing the shell to interpret a second, malicious command. The SystemCommand#runCommand() attempts to parse the given command, and throw a SecurityException if multiple commands are present.
  • Prevent arguments targeting sensitive files. There is little reason for custom code to target sensitive system files like /etc/passwd, so the sandbox prevents arguments that point to these files that may be targets for exfiltration.

There are more options for sandboxing if you are interested in locking down system commands even more.

More reading

I have additional improvements ready for this repo! If you want to see them, leave the comment:

@pixeebot next

... and I will open a new PR right away!

🧚🤖 Powered by Pixeebot

Feedback | Community | Docs | Codemod ID: pixee:java/harden-process-creation

<scope>test</scope>
</dependency>

<dependency>
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This library holds security tools for protecting Java API calls.

License: MIT ✅ | Open source ✅ | More facts

<artifactId>hamcrest-all</artifactId>
<version>1.3</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
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This library holds security tools for protecting Java API calls.

License: MIT ✅ | Open source ✅ | More facts

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pixeebot bot commented Jul 5, 2025

I'm confident in this change, but I'm not a maintainer of this project. Do you see any reason not to merge it?

If this change was not helpful, or you have suggestions for improvements, please let me know!

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pixeebot bot commented Jul 6, 2025

Just a friendly ping to remind you about this change. If there are concerns about it, we'd love to hear about them!

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pixeebot bot commented Jul 12, 2025

This change may not be a priority right now, so I'll close it. If there was something I could have done better, please let me know!

You can also customize me to make sure I'm working with you in the way you want.

@pixeebot pixeebot bot closed this Jul 12, 2025
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