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CA2102: Catch non-CLSCompliant exceptions in general handlers

  • Article

Note

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Item Value
TypeName CatchNonClsCompliantExceptionsInGeneralHandlers
CheckId CA2102
Category Microsoft.Security
Breaking Change Non-breaking

Cause

A member in an assembly that is not marked with the RuntimeCompatibilityAttribute or is marked RuntimeCompatibility(WrapNonExceptionThrows = false) contains a catch block that handles System.Exception and does not contain an immediately following general catch block. This rule ignores Visual Basic assemblies.

Rule Description

A catch block that handles Exception catches all Common Language Specification (CLS) compliant exceptions. However, it does not catch non-CLS compliant exceptions. Non-CLS compliant exceptions can be thrown from native code or from managed code that was generated by the Microsoft intermediate language (MSIL) Assembler. Notice that the C# and Visual Basic compilers do not allow non-CLS compliant exceptions to be thrown and Visual Basic does not catch non-CLS compliant exceptions. If the intent of the catch block is to handle all exceptions, use the following general catch block syntax.

  • C#: catch {}

  • C++: catch(...) {} or catch(Object^) {}

    An unhandled non-CLS compliant exception becomes a security issue when previously allowed permissions are removed in the catch block. Because non-CLS compliant exceptions are not caught, a malicious method that throws a non-CLS compliant exception could run with elevated permissions.

How to Fix Violations

To fix a violation of this rule when the intent is to catch all exceptions, substitute or add a general catch block or mark the assembly RuntimeCompatibility(WrapNonExceptionThrows = true). If permissions are removed in the catch block, duplicate the functionality in the general catch block. If it is not the intent to handle all exceptions, replace the catch block that handles Exception with catch blocks that handle specific exception types.

When to Suppress Warnings

It is safe to suppress a warning from this rule if the try block does not contain any statements that might generate a non-CLS compliant exception. Because any native or managed code might throw a non-CLS compliant exception, this requires knowledge of all code that can be executed in all code paths inside the try block. Notice that non-CLS compliant exceptions are not thrown by the common language runtime.

Example

The following example shows an MSIL class that throws a non-CLS compliant exception.

.assembly ThrowNonClsCompliantException {}
.class public auto ansi beforefieldinit ThrowsExceptions
{
   .method public hidebysig static void
         ThrowNonClsException() cil managed
   {
      .maxstack  1
      IL_0000:  newobj     instance void [mscorlib]System.Object::.ctor()
      IL_0005:  throw
   }
}

Example

The following example shows a method that contains a general catch block that satisfies the rule.

// CatchNonClsCompliantException.cs
using System;

namespace SecurityLibrary
{
   class HandlesExceptions
   {
      void CatchAllExceptions()
      {
         try
         {
            ThrowsExceptions.ThrowNonClsException();
         }
         catch(Exception e)
         {
            // Remove some permission.
            Console.WriteLine("CLS compliant exception caught");
         }
         catch
         {
            // Remove the same permission as above.
            Console.WriteLine("Non-CLS compliant exception caught.");
         }
      }

      static void Main()
      {
         HandlesExceptions handleExceptions = new HandlesExceptions();
         handleExceptions.CatchAllExceptions();
      }
   }
}

Compile the previous examples as follows.

ilasm /dll ThrowNonClsCompliantException.il
csc /r:ThrowNonClsCompliantException.dll CatchNonClsCompliantException.cs

CA1031: Do not catch general exception types

See Also

Exceptions and Exception Handling Ilasm.exe (IL Assembler) Overriding Security Checks Language Independence and Language-Independent Components