CA2354: Unsafe DataSet or DataTable in deserialized object graph can be vulnerable to remote code execution attack

Property	Value
Rule ID	CA2354
Title	Unsafe DataSet or DataTable in deserialized object graph can be vulnerable to remote code execution attack
Category	Security
Fix is breaking or non-breaking	Non-breaking
Enabled by default in .NET 9	No

Cause

Deserializing with an System.Runtime.Serialization.IFormatter serialized, and the casted type's object graph can include a DataSet or DataTable.

This rule uses a different approach to a similar rule, CA2352: Unsafe DataSet or DataTable in serializable type can be vulnerable to remote code execution attacks.

Rule description

When deserializing untrusted input with BinaryFormatter and the deserialized object graph contains a DataSet or DataTable, an attacker can craft a malicious payload to perform a remote code execution attack.

For more information, see DataSet and DataTable security guidance.

How to fix violations

• If possible, use Entity Framework rather than DataSet and DataTable.
• Make the serialized data tamper-proof. After serialization, cryptographically sign the serialized data. Before deserialization, validate the cryptographic signature. Protect the cryptographic key from being disclosed and design for key rotations.

When to suppress warnings

It's safe to suppress a warning from this rule if:

• You know the input is trusted. Consider that your application's trust boundary and data flows may change over time.
• You've taken one of the precautions in How to fix violations.

Suppress a warning

If you just want to suppress a single violation, add preprocessor directives to your source file to disable and then re-enable the rule.

C#

#pragma warning disable CA2354
// The code that's violating the rule is on this line.
#pragma warning restore CA2354

To disable the rule for a file, folder, or project, set its severity to none in the configuration file.

ini

[*.{cs,vb}]
dotnet_diagnostic.CA2354.severity = none

For more information, see How to suppress code analysis warnings.

Pseudo-code examples

Violation

C#

using System.Data;
using System.IO;
using System.Runtime.Serialization;

[Serializable]
public class MyClass
{
    public MyOtherClass OtherClass { get; set; }
}

[Serializable]
public class MyOtherClass
{
    private DataSet myDataSet;
}

public class ExampleClass
{
    public MyClass Deserialize(Stream stream)
    {
        BinaryFormatter bf = new BinaryFormatter();
        return (MyClass) bf.Deserialize(stream);
    }
}

Related rules

CA2350: Ensure DataTable.ReadXml()'s input is trusted

CA2351: Ensure DataSet.ReadXml()'s input is trusted

CA2352: Unsafe DataSet or DataTable in serializable type can be vulnerable to remote code execution attacks

CA2353: Unsafe DataSet or DataTable in serializable type

CA2355: Unsafe DataSet or DataTable in deserialized object graph

CA2356: Unsafe DataSet or DataTable in web deserialized object graph

CA2361: Ensure autogenerated class containing DataSet.ReadXml() is not used with untrusted data

CA2362: Unsafe DataSet or DataTable in autogenerated serializable type can be vulnerable to remote code execution attacks