Force binary deserialization to fail when type modified

Question

I'm looking for a non-intrusive way to enforce deserialization to fail under the following circumstances:

The type is not defined in a strongly named assembly.
BinaryFormatter is used.
Since serialized, the type has been modified (e.g. a property has been added).

Below is an illustration/repro of the problem in form of a failing NUnit test. I'm looking for a generic way to make this pass without modifying the Data class, preferably by just setting up the BinaryFormatter during serialization and/or deserialization. I also don't want to involve serialization surrogates, as this is likely to require specific knowledge for each affected type.

Can't find anything in the MSDN docs that helps me though.

[Serializable]
public class Data
{
  public string S { get; set; }
}

public class DataSerializationTests
{
    /// <summary>
    /// This string contains a Base64 encoded serialized instance of the
    /// original version of the Data class with no members:
    /// [Serializable]
    /// public class Data
    /// { }
    /// </summary>
    private const string Base64EncodedEmptyDataVersion =
        "AAEAAAD/////AQAAAAAAAAAMAgAAAEtTc2MuU3Rvcm0uRGF0YS5UZXN0cywgV"+
        "mVyc2lvbj0xLjAuMC4wLCBDdWx0dXJlPW5ldXRyYWwsIFB1YmxpY0tleVRva2"+
        "VuPW51bGwFAQAAABlTc2MuU3Rvcm0uRGF0YS5UZXN0cy5EYXRhAAAAAAIAAAAL";

    [Test]
    public void Deserialize_FromOriginalEmptyVersionFails()
    {
        var binaryFormatter = new BinaryFormatter();
        var memoryStream = new MemoryStream(Convert.FromBase64String(Base64EncodedEmptyDataVersion));

        memoryStream.Seek(0L, SeekOrigin.Begin);

        Assert.That(
            () => binaryFormatter.Deserialize(memoryStream),
            Throws.Exception
        );
    }
}

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 21 '15 at 12:31

I'd recommend a "Java" way here - declare int field in every single serializable class like private int _Serializable = 0; and check that your current version & serialized version match; manually increase when you change properties. If you insist on automated way you'll have to store a lot of metadata and check if current metadata & persisted metadata matches (extra burden on performance/size of serialized data).

Here is the automatic descriptor. Basically you'll have to store TypeDescriptor instance as a part of your binary data & on retrieve check if persisted TypeDescriptor is valid for serialization (IsValidForSerialization) against current TypeDescriptor.

var persistedDescriptor = ...;
var currentDescriptor = Describe(typeof(Foo));
bool isValid = persistedDescriptor.IsValidForSerialization(currentDescriptor);

[Serializable]
[DataContract]
public class TypeDescriptor
{
  [DataMember]
  public string TypeName { get; set; }
  [DataMember]
  public IList<FieldDescriptor> Fields { get; set; }

  public TypeDescriptor()
  {
    Fields = new List<FieldDescriptor>();
  }

  public bool IsValidForSerialization(TypeDescriptor currentType)
  {
    if (!string.Equals(TypeName, currentType.TypeName, StringComparison.Ordinal))
    {
      return false;
    }
    foreach(var field in Fields)
    {
      var mirrorField = currentType.Fields.FirstOrDefault(f => string.Equals(f.FieldName, field.FieldName, StringComparison.Ordinal));
      if (mirrorField == null)
      {
        return false;
      }
      if (!field.Type.IsValidForSerialization(mirrorField.Type))
      {
        return false;
      }
    }
    return true;
  }
}

[Serializable]
[DataContract]
public class FieldDescriptor
{
  [DataMember]
  public TypeDescriptor Type { get; set; }
  [DataMember]
  public string FieldName { get; set; }
}

private static TypeDescriptor Describe(Type type, IDictionary<Type, TypeDescriptor> knownTypes)
{
  if (knownTypes.ContainsKey(type))
  {
    return knownTypes[type];
  }

  var descriptor = new TypeDescriptor { TypeName = type.FullName, Fields = new List<FieldDescriptor>() };
  knownTypes.Add(type, descriptor);
  if (!type.IsPrimitive && type != typeof(string))
  {
    foreach (var field in type.GetFields(BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.NonPublic | BindingFlags.Public).OrderBy(f => f.Name))
    {
      var attributes = field.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(NonSerializedAttribute), false);
      if (attributes != null && attributes.Length > 0)
      {
        continue;
      }

      descriptor.Fields.Add(new FieldDescriptor { FieldName = field.Name, Type = Describe(field.FieldType, knownTypes) });

    }
  }
  return descriptor;
}

public static TypeDescriptor Describe(Type type)
{
  return Describe(type, new Dictionary<Type, TypeDescriptor>());
}

I also though about some mechanism of shortening size of persisted metadata - like calculating MD5 from xml-serialized or json-serialized TypeDescriptor; but in that case new property/field will mark your object as incompatible for serialization.

This is a possible solution that is also non-intrusive, which was what I asked for. I wouldn't do it exactly like that but it gave me some food for thought. However I've got a feeling that making something like this production-ready involves more effort than actually modifying the serialized classes. I was hoping for some kind of "secret" flags to put `BinaryFormatter` in a stricter mode. But unless anything else shows up I'll mark your answer as correct. Thanks. — rjnilsson, Apr 22 '15 at 05:21

Force binary deserialization to fail when type modified

1 Answers1