Summary: Codebox is a graphical tool that helps to create taint-tracking models for Go functions/methods/interfaces.

You specify the taint logic in a graphical (web) interface, and it generates CodeQL taint-tracking models along with Go scenario test cases for those models.

Example

The codebox tool was created to expand the taint-tracking models of codeql-go (the official CodeQL extractor and libraries for Go.)

You can find below all the models and tests that were generated by codebox and then merged into the codeql-go repo:

• Taint-tracking models: https://github.com/github/codeql-go/tree/main/ql/src/semmle/go/frameworks/stdlib
• Tests: https://github.com/github/codeql-go/tree/main/ql/test/library-tests/semmle/go/frameworks/StdlibTaintFlow
• Imports: https://github.com/github/codeql-go/blob/main/ql/src/semmle/go/frameworks/Stdlib.qll#L6-L65
• More about the goal: https://github.com/github/securitylab/issues/187

NOTE: The codebox tool and its author have no affiliation with GitHub/Semmle.

How it works

# - go get
go get github.com/gagliardetto/codebox

# - Enter the codebox folder:
cd $GOPATH/src/github.com/gagliardetto/codebox

# - Compile and install the binary:
make

# - Spin up the graphical tool http server for e.g. the "io" package.
# NOTE: You still need to be inside $GOPATH/src/github.com/gagliardetto/codebox (to be able to access static assets)
# NOTE: You need to have Go installed to be able to analyze standard library packages.
# NOTE: The --pkg flag can either be <package> (defaults to latest version), or <package>@<version>;
# e.g. github.com/gin-gonic/gin@latest
# e.g. github.com/gin-gonic/[email protected]
# NOTE: There might be some issues with some packages or modules.
# NOTE: The --out-dir flag is the folder where all the generated files will go.
codebox --out-dir=./generated/compressed --pkg=net/http --stub --http

# - Open the UI in the browser:
chrome http://127.0.0.1:8080/

# - Now that you see the UI in the browser, complete the taint-tracking logic
# and when you're done, close the server program you started in the terminal
# with a CTRL-C.
# You will find the generated codeql and golang files inside ./generated/compressed

# NOTE: if you only want to regenerate the code without starting the server,
# then you need to remove the --http flag:
codebox --out-dir=./generated/compressed --pkg=net/http --stub

Helpful commands for batch processing

# Move all files from child directories to parent directory:
# find . -mindepth 2 -type f -name "*.go" -print -exec mv {} . \;
# find . -mindepth 2 -type f -name "*.qll" -print -exec mv {} . \;
 find . -mindepth 2 -type f -print -exec mv {} . \;

#for f in *.qll; do printf '%s\n' "${f%.qll}TaintTracking.qll"; done

rename 's/\.qll$/TaintTracking.qll/' *.qll

# format a codeql file:
codeql query format -qq -i file.qll

# format all codeql files:

 echo ~/.config/Code/User/globalStorage/github.vscode-codeql/distribution*/codeql/codeql
 find . -type f -name "*.ql" -or -name "*.qll" -exec ~/.config/Code/User/globalStorage/github.vscode-codeql/distribution12/codeql/codeql query format -qq -i {} ';' -print

 find . -type f -name "*.ql" -or -name "*.qll" | while read cqlFile; do echo $cqlFile && codeql query format -qq -i $cqlFile; done