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@anweiss anweiss commented Aug 19, 2025

This PR fixes issue #248 where validating recursive CDDL structures would cause a stack overflow due to infinite recursion.

Problem

When validating recursive CDDL structures like:

Tree = {
  root: Node
}

Node = [
  value: text,
  children: [* Node]  ; Here's the recursion - Node contains Nodes
]

The validator would enter infinite recursion when encountering self-referential types, leading to a stack overflow crash.

Solution

Added recursion detection to the CBORValidator by:

  1. Tracking visited rules: Added a visited_rules HashSet to track which rules are currently being validated in the call stack
  2. Cycle detection: Before visiting a rule, check if it's already in the visited set
  3. Graceful handling: When a cycle is detected, return Ok() to allow the recursive reference while preventing infinite recursion
  4. Proper state management: Added new_with_recursion_state() helper to ensure recursion state is properly inherited

Changes

  • Added visited_rules: HashSet<String> field to CBORValidator
  • Modified visit_identifier() to detect and handle recursive calls
  • Added comprehensive test case validate_recursive_structures()
  • Added helper method for proper state transfer between validator instances

Testing

  • All existing tests continue to pass
  • New test validates that recursive structures can be processed without stack overflow
  • Manual testing confirms the original failing case now works:
    echo "a164726f6f74826576616c75658282666368696c64318082666368696c643280" | xxd -r -p | cddl validate --stdin --cddl example.cddl
    Now returns: [INFO] Validation from stdin is successful

Verification

✅ Fixes the stack overflow issue
✅ Maintains validation correctness
✅ All existing tests pass
✅ Added comprehensive test coverage
✅ No breaking changes

Closes #248

This commit fixes issue #248 where validating recursive CDDL structures
would cause a stack overflow due to infinite recursion.

Changes:
- Added recursion detection to CBORValidator using visited_rules HashSet
- Track visited rules during validation to prevent cycles
- Allow recursive references by returning Ok() when a cycle is detected
- Added comprehensive test case for recursive structure validation
- Added helper method new_with_recursion_state() for proper state transfer

The fix ensures that recursive structures like:

Can be validated without causing stack overflow while maintaining
validation correctness.
- Add visited_rules HashSet field to JSONValidator struct
- Implement recursion detection in visit_identifier method
- Handle recursive rule references in array processing
- Add comprehensive tests for JSON validator recursion protection
- Ensure both CBOR and JSON validators are protected against infinite recursion

This extends the fix for issue #248 to cover both CBOR and JSON validation,
providing comprehensive protection against stack overflow in recursive CDDL structures.
@anweiss anweiss merged commit 4adbe1a into main Aug 19, 2025
15 checks passed
@anweiss anweiss deleted the fix-issue-248-recursive-stack-overflow branch August 19, 2025 15:23
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Stack overflow when validating recursive structures
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