Fix stack overflow from circular alias in traverse (#2647)

go-yaml accepts cross-document alias references, which the YAML spec
forbids (anchors are scoped to a single document). When a nested
assignment targets such an alias, UpdateFrom copies the Alias field
between nodes, creating a self-referencing AliasNode. Both traverse()
and traverseArrayIndices() then follow this cycle indefinitely.

Extract resolveAliasChain(), which follows aliases iteratively with a
visited set and returns an error on cycles. Both traverse() and
traverseArrayIndices() now call it, eliminating the recursive alias
handling in both code paths.

Note: traverseMergeAnchor() also dereferences aliases (lines 358 and
371) but with single-step assignment, not recursion. A self-referencing
alias there falls through the kind switch silently rather than
crashing. Using resolveAliasChain() in that function would produce a
clear error instead of silently dropping the node.

Reproducer (stack overflow before this fix, returns error after):

    echo '&-- a
    ---
    *--' | yq eval-all '. = (.x = 1)'

Found by OSS-Fuzz via the lima project's FuzzEvaluateExpression target.
https://issues.oss-fuzz.com/issues/390467412

Signed-off-by: Jan Dubois <jan@jandubois.com>
Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
This commit is contained in:
Jan Dubois
2026-04-06 18:25:13 +10:00
committed by GitHub
co-authored by Claude Opus 4.6
parent 2ef934281e
commit 0374ad6b4b
2 changed files with 96 additions and 8 deletions
+31 -8
View File
@@ -36,9 +36,33 @@ func traversePathOperator(_ *dataTreeNavigator, context Context, expressionNode
return context.ChildContext(matches), nil
}
// resolveAliasChain follows an alias chain iteratively, returning the
// first non-alias node. Returns an error if a cycle is detected.
func resolveAliasChain(node *CandidateNode) (*CandidateNode, error) {
if node.Kind != AliasNode {
return node, nil
}
visited := map[*CandidateNode]bool{}
for node.Kind == AliasNode {
if visited[node] {
return nil, fmt.Errorf("alias cycle detected")
}
visited[node] = true
log.Debug("its an alias!")
node = node.Alias
}
return node, nil
}
func traverse(context Context, matchingNode *CandidateNode, operation *Operation) (*list.List, error) {
log.Debugf("Traversing %v", NodeToString(matchingNode))
var err error
matchingNode, err = resolveAliasChain(matchingNode)
if err != nil {
return nil, err
}
if matchingNode.Tag == "!!null" && operation.Value != "[]" && !context.DontAutoCreate {
log.Debugf("Guessing kind")
// we must have added this automatically, lets guess what it should be now
@@ -62,10 +86,6 @@ func traverse(context Context, matchingNode *CandidateNode, operation *Operation
log.Debugf("its a sequence of %v things!", len(matchingNode.Content))
return traverseArray(matchingNode, operation, operation.Preferences.(traversePreferences))
case AliasNode:
log.Debug("its an alias!")
matchingNode = matchingNode.Alias
return traverse(context, matchingNode, operation)
default:
return list.New(), nil
}
@@ -125,7 +145,13 @@ func traverseNodesWithArrayIndices(context Context, indicesToTraverse []*Candida
return context.ChildContext(matchingNodeMap), nil
}
func traverseArrayIndices(context Context, matchingNode *CandidateNode, indicesToTraverse []*CandidateNode, prefs traversePreferences) (*list.List, error) { // call this if doc / alias like the other traverse
func traverseArrayIndices(context Context, matchingNode *CandidateNode, indicesToTraverse []*CandidateNode, prefs traversePreferences) (*list.List, error) {
var err error
matchingNode, err = resolveAliasChain(matchingNode)
if err != nil {
return nil, err
}
if matchingNode.Tag == "!!null" {
log.Debugf("OperatorArrayTraverse got a null - turning it into an empty array")
// auto vivification
@@ -138,9 +164,6 @@ func traverseArrayIndices(context Context, matchingNode *CandidateNode, indicesT
}
switch matchingNode.Kind {
case AliasNode:
matchingNode = matchingNode.Alias
return traverseArrayIndices(context, matchingNode, indicesToTraverse, prefs)
case SequenceNode:
return traverseArrayWithIndices(matchingNode, indicesToTraverse, prefs)
case MappingNode: