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[BUG] Validation of message with `com.google.protobuf.Timestamp` fails with `java.time.DateTimeException` if seconds/nanos exceed `Instant` bounds

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#379 4 comments 1 reaction 0 assignees View on GitHub

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Assessment

Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Newbie friendliness
45/100
Issue type
Bug
Clarity
Clearly specified
Activity status
Stale
Tech stack
java
Domain
backend

Research direction

Start in src/main/java/build/buf/protovalidate/ProtoAdapter.java around the scalarToCel conversion at lines 93-104, then reproduce validation with a Timestamp seconds value of Long.MAX_VALUE. Check both extreme Timestamp and Duration values, and consider the work complete when validation returns a clear validation error instead of propagating a date or arithmetic exception.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

Bug

Description

Validation of com.google.protobuf.Timestamp fails with java.time.DateTimeException when the timestamp's seconds or nanoseconds values exceed the bounds that can be represented by Java's Instant class. This occurs when attempting to validate protobuf messages containing timestamps with extreme values like Long.MAX_VALUE for seconds, which cannot be converted to a valid Instant object.

The underlying issue is in ProtoAdapter class:

https://github.com/bufbuild/protovalidate-java/blob/97b4e2d604e82087abce63f6ec522989a6ec5178/src/main/java/build/buf/protovalidate/ProtoAdapter.java#L93-L104

Similar issue seems to also affect com.google.protobuf.Duration if using extreme nanos values due to the ProtoAdapter implementation linked above.

Steps to Reproduce

  1. Define a protobuf message with a google.protobuf.Timestamp field:
syntax = "proto3";
package acme.foo.v1;
import "buf/validate/validate.proto";

message Foo {
  google.protobuf.Timestamp bar = 1;
}
  1. Create a protobuf message instance with timestamp seconds set to Long.MAX_VALUE:
Foo message = Foo.newBuilder()
    .setBar(Timestamp.newBuilder().setSeconds(Long.MAX_VALUE))
    .build();
  1. Attempt to validate the message using protovalidate: ValidationResult result = validator.validate(message);
  2. Observe the java.time.DateTimeException being thrown during validation

Expected Behavior

The validation should provide a clear validation error indicating the timestamp is out of bounds instead of throwing uncaught java.time.DateTimeException

Actual Behavior

A java.time.DateTimeException is thrown when the validator attempts to convert the protobuf timestamp to a Java Instant object, causing the entire validation process to fail with an unhandled exception rather than a proper validation error.

Screenshots/Logs

java.time.DateTimeException: Instant exceeds minimum or maximum instant
	at java.base/java.time.Instant.create(Instant.java:414)
	at java.base/java.time.Instant.ofEpochSecond(Instant.java:334)
	at build.buf.protovalidate.ProtoAdapter.scalarToCel(ProtoAdapter.java:98)
	at build.buf.protovalidate.ProtoAdapter.toCel(ProtoAdapter.java:65)
	at build.buf.protovalidate.ObjectValue.value(ObjectValue.java:65)
	at build.buf.protovalidate.ValueEvaluator.evaluate(ValueEvaluator.java:74)
	at build.buf.protovalidate.FieldEvaluator.evaluate(FieldEvaluator.java:121)
	at build.buf.protovalidate.MessageEvaluator.evaluate(MessageEvaluator.java:41)

Environment

  • Protovalidate Version: v1.0.1

Possible Solution

The protovalidate ProtoAdapter class or some other part of logic before it should:

  • Add bounds checking before attempting to convert protobuf timestamps to Java Instant objects or protobuf durations to Java Duration objects.
  • Or catch DateTimeException (timestamp to Instant case) / ArithmeticException (duration case) during protobuf to Java instance conversion and convert it to a proper validation error
Dominant language
Java
Stars
70
Forks
17
Avg merge
2d 13h
Merged PRs (30d)
13

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