yara

This module implements YARA bindings for Node.js.

This module is supported on Linux and MacOS (using homebrew) platforms only

This module uses the installed version of libyara 3.9. You should download, compile and install your preferred version, or use one of the following commands using your system package manager:

# CentOS/Red Hat
sudo yum install yara-devel

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt-get install libyara-dev

# MacOS (using homebrew)
sudo brew install yara

This module is installed using node package manager (npm):

# This module contains C++ source code which will be compiled
# during installation using node-gyp.  A suitable build chain
# must be configured before installation.

npm i --save "yara@npm:@automattic/yara@latest"

It is loaded using the require() function:

var yara = require("yara")

Following initialisation of this module Scanner objects can then be created, and content scanned using YARA rules:

yara.initialize(function(error) {
	if (error) {
		console.error(error.message)
	} else {
		var rule_string = [
				"rule is_good {",
				"	condition:",
				"		true",
				"}"
			].join("\n")

		var rules = [
			{filename: "rules.yara"},
			{string: rule_string}
		]

		var scanner = yara.createScanner()
		
		scanner.configure({rules: rules}, function(error, warnings) {
			if (error) {
				if (error instanceof yara.CompileRulesError) {
					console.error(error.message + ": " + JSON.stringify(error.errors))
				} else {
					console.error(error.message)
				}
			} else {
				if (warnings.length) {
					console.error("Compile warnings: " + JSON.stringify(warnings))
				} else {
					var req = {buffer: Buffer.from("content")}
					
					scanner.scan(req, function(error, result) {
						if (error) {
							console.error(error.message)
						} else {
							console.error(JSON.stringify(result))
						}
					})
				}
			}
		})
	}
})

This Module vs the YARA C API

When working with the YARA C API one would typically perform the following:

1. Initialize the YARA library
2. Create a YARA compiler
3. Compile one or more rules
4. Define zero or more external variables
5. Retrieve the compiled rules
6. Scan one or more pieces of content (file or memory based) using the compiled rules

Node.js is asynchronous and this module takes advantage of this property by performing steps 2 to 5 above as a single action. This is done in a way that YARA rules can be completely replaced at run-time while in the middle of scanning files.

This can be useful for long-running processes which must reload rules on the fly in the middle of scanning large numbers of files, for example.

When using this module in place of the YARA C API the following steps would be used instead:

1. Initialize the YARA library - call yara.initialize()
2. Create a scanner instance - call yara.createScanner()
3. Configure the scanner instance - call Scanner.configure()
4. Scan one or more pieces of content (file or memory based) - call Scanner.scan()
5. At any point, even while scanning files, re-configure the scanner instance with new rules and external variables - call Scanner.configure()

Nearly all features of the YARA C API are exposed by this module. Features that do not fit in with the Node.js environment are excluded, e.g. the yr_rules_scan_fd() function and all the yr_..._foreach() functions.

Note also that the yr_rules_save() and yr_rules_load() functions are not exposed in anyway, nor are the yr_rules_save_stream() and yr_rules_load_stream() functions.

Asynchronous Thread Pool Size

Content scanning is performed in background threads. This is provided by the Native Abstractions for Node.js framework, specifically the AsyncWorker class interface.

By default, Node.js employs 4 background threads by default. When scanning many hundreds of files at once, for example, this would reduce throughput. Support for the UV_THREADPOOL_SIZE environment variable was introduced into Node.js 0.10.0. This can be used increase the number of background threads up to a maximum of 128. This should be set before starting Node.js, and cannot be changed once Node.js has been started:

export UV_THREADPOOL_SIZE=128; node

Constants

The following sections describe constants exported and used by this module.

yara.MetaType

When a rule is matched during a scan the result object passed to the Scanner.scan() callback will contain a rules attribute, which is an array of objects each defining a matched rule. Each rule object will have a metas attribute, which is a further array of objects, each defining the meta fields defined for the corresponding rule. Each meta object contains a type attribute which defines the YARA type for the meta field's value. For example:

var result = {
	"rules": [
		{
			"id": "is_stephen",
			...
			"metas": [
				{type: yara.MetaType.String, id: "m1", value: "something"},
				{type: yara.MetaType.Boolean, id: "m2", value: true}
			]
		}
	]
}

This object contains constants which can be used for the type attribute.

The following constants are defined in this object (the corresponding YARA C API constant is also given):

• Integer - META_TYPE_INTEGER
• Boolean - META_TYPE_BOOLEAN
• String - META_TYPE_STRING

yara.ScanFlag

The Scanner.scan() method expects an object as its first argument. This object can contain a flags attribute which is used by the YARA scanning engine. Currently only the one flag below is defined by YARA, therefore this attribute will be either 0 (the default) or the singular flag defined below.

The following constants are defined in this object (the corresponding YARA C API constant is also given):

• FastMode - SCAN_FLAGS_FAST_MODE

yara.VariableType

The Scanner.scan() method expects an object as its first argument. This object can contain a variables attribute, which is an array of objects, each defining a YARA external variable. Each variable object contains a type attribute which defines the YARA type for the variables value. For example:

var options = {
	...
	variables: [
		{type: yara.VariableType.Integer, id: "age", value: 35}
		{type: yara.VariableType.String, id: "name", value: "Stephen Vickers"}
	]
}

This object contains constants which can be used for the type attribute.

The following constants are defined in this object (the corresponding YARA C API function used to define the variable an a YARA compiler instance is also given):

• Integer - yr_compiler_define_integer_variable()
• Float - yr_compiler_define_float_variable()
• Boolean - yr_compiler_define_boolean_variable()
• String - yr_compiler_define_string_variable()

Using This Module

This module exposes the Scanner class. Instances of this class are used to configure one or more YARA rules and zero or more external variables. Once configured with these items, Scanner instances are then used to scan content using the scan() method.

This module exports the createScanner() function which is used to create instances of the Scanner class.

Before any Scanner instances can be configured, or used for scanning, the yara.initialize() function must be called.

yara.libyaraVersion()

The libyaraVersion() function returns a string containing the version of YARA library loaded and used by this module.

The following example will print 3.7.0 to standard output if the version of YARA installed locally is 3.7.0:

console.log(yara.libyaraVersion())

yara.initialize(callback)

The initialize() function initializes the YARA library by calling the YARA C API function yr_initialize().

The callback function is called once yr_initialize() has been called. The following arguments will be passed to the callback function:

• error - Instance of the Error class, or null if no error occurred

The following example initializes the YARA library:

yara.initialize(function(error) {
	if (error) {
		console.error(error.message)
	} else {
		// Create a scanner, configure it and scan some files...
	}
})

yara.createScanner()

The createScanner() function instantiates and returns an instance of the Scanner class:

var scanner = raw.createScanner()

This function takes no arguments.

scanner.configure(options, callback)

The configure() method configures a Scanner instance with one or more YARA rules and zero or more YARA external variables.

The required options parameter is an object, and can contain the following items:

• rules - An array of objects, each defining one YARA rule, each object must contain one of the following two attributes:
  • filename - A file containing YARA rules to configure the scanner with
  • string - A string containin YARA rules to configure the scanner with
• variables - An array of objects, each defining one YARA external variable, each object must contain the following attributes:
  • type - One of the constants defined in the yara.VariableType object, e.g. yara.VariableType.Integer
  • id - The variables identifier as a string, e.g. created_at
  • value - The variables value, the type of this field will depend on the type specified in the type attribute, e.g. true for the type yara.VariableType.Boolean

The callback function is called once all rules have been compiled and all external variables have been configured. The following arguments will be passed to the callback function:

• error - Instance of the Error class, an instance of the yara.CompileRulesError class, or null if no error occurred, if error is an instance of the yara.CompileRulesError class then the attribute errors will be defined on the error object which is an array of one or more objects, each object defines an error generated when a rule was compiled, each object will contain the following attributes:
  • index - An integer index indicating which item in the rules array, specified in the options object passed to the configure() method, the error relates to, i.e. 0 for the first item
  • line - The line number within the rule the error relates to, e.g. 42 for line 42
  • message - A string describing the error, e.g. syntax error, unexpected '}', expecting _CONDITION_
• warnings - An array of zero or more objects, each object defines a warning generated when a rule was compiled, if there were no warnings the array will be 0 in length, each object will contain the following attributes:
  • index - An integer index indicating which item in the rules array, specified in the options object passed to the configure() method, the warning relates to, i.e. 3 for the fourth item
  • line - The line number within the rule the warning relates to, e.g. 12 for line 12
  • message - A string describing the warning, e.g. Using literal string "stephen" in a boolean operation.

The following example configures a number of YARA rules from strings:

var rules = [
	"rule always_true {\ncondition:\ntrue\n}",
	"rule always_false {\ncondition:\nfalse\n}"
]

var variables = [
	{type: yara.VariableType.Integer, id: "created_at", value: 1493332105},
	{type: yara.VariableType.String, id: "created_by", value: "Stephen Vickers"},
	{type: yara.VariableType.Boolean, id: "is_stable", value: true}
]

scanner.configure({rules: rules, variables: variables}, function(error, warnings) {
	if (error) {
		if (error instanceof yara.CompileRulesError) {
			console.error(error.message + ": " + JSON.stringify(error.errors))
		} else {
			console.error(error.message)
		}
	} else {
		if (warnings.length)
			console.error("Compile warnings: " + JSON.stringify(warnings))
		} else {
			// Scan some files
		}
	}
})

scanner.scan(request, callback)

The scan() method scans the content contained within a Node.js Buffer object or a file.

The required request parameter is an object, and can contain the following items:

• filename - A string specifying a file, either this attribute or the buffer attribute is required
• buffer - A Node.js Buffer object, either this attribute or the filename attribute is required
• offset - A number specifying how many bytes of the Node.js Buffer object specified by the buffer attribute to skip before scanning, defaults to 0
• length - A number specifying the number of bytes, starting at the offset specified by the offset attribute, to scan in the Node.js Buffer object specified by the buffer attribute, defaults to the result of buffer.length - offset
• flags - Either the constant yara.ScanFlag.FastMode or the number 0, defaults to 0
• timeout - A number specifying after how many seconds a scan should be aborted, defaults to 0 meaning no timeout
• matchedBytes - A number specifying the number of bytes of actual matched data to include in the scan result, defaults to 0 meaning not to include any matched data, note that this number is also capped by the MAX_MATCH_DATA libyara configuration

The callback function is called once the scan has completed. The following arguments will be passed to the callback function:

• error - Instance of the Error class or null if no error occurred
• result - An object containing the following attributes:
  • rules - An array of objects, each defining a YARA rule found to match the content scanned, each object will contain the following attributes:
    • id - The rule identifier
    • tags - An array of strings, each is a tag defined in the YARA rule
    • matches - An array of objects, each identifying a string found in the content scanned, and at which offset, note since a YARA rule can match on other non-string items this array may have a length of 0, each object will contain the following attributes:
      • offset - A number indicating at which offset in the content the string matched some data, e.g. 43
      • length - A number indicating the length of the data matched in the content, e.g. 7
      • id - The matching strings identifier, e.g. $s1
      • bytes - If the matchedBytes attribute was specified in the request parameter passed to the scan() method, this attribute will be present and will contain a Node.js Buffer instance with the bytes of data which matched, this may not contain all data that matched, and will contain a number of bytes up to the number specified by matchedBytes, or the MAX_MATCH_DATA libyara configuration if it is smaller, use the length attribute to determine if the bytes attribute contains all the matched data
    • metas - An array of objects, each identifying a meta field defined on the rule, since a rule may have no meta fields this array may have a length of 0, each object will contain the following attributes:
      • type - One of the constants defined in the yara.MetaType object, e.g. yara.MetaType.Integer
      • id - The meta fields identifier, e.g. created_by
      • value - The meta fields value, e.g. Stephen Vickers

The following example scans a Node.js Buffer object:

var buffer = Buffer.from("some bad content")

scanner.scan({buffer: buffer}, function(error, result) {
	if (error) {
		console.error(error)
	} else {
		if (result.rules.length) {
			console.log("match: " + JSON.stringify(result))
		} else {
			console.log("no-match")
		}
	}
})

Example Programs

Example programs are included under the modules example directory.

Changes

Version 1.0.0 - 28/04/2017

• Initial release

Version 1.1.0 - 02/05/2017

• Support Mac OS
• Address indentation inconsistencies

Version 1.2.0 - 29/05/2017

• Introduce "official" support for Mac OS
• Upgrade YARA to 3.6.0

Version 1.3.0 - 14/07/2017

• Extract specified number of bytes of matched data when a string from a rule matches (added the matchedBytes attribute to the request object to the Scanner.scan() method)
• YARA dependancy is downloaded during build (defaults to 3.6.3, override using YARA=x.x.x npm install)
• Added the libyaraVersion() function to obtain the version of YARA which has been statically compiled into the module

Version 1.3.1 - 24/07/2017

• Matched data buffer in scan result is freed twice resulting a double free exception

Version 1.4.0 - 09/01/2018

• Update YARA version downloaded during install to the latest stable release (version 3.7.0)

Version 2.0.0 - 29/01/2018

• Use YARA library from local system instead of downloading during installation

Version 2.0.1 - 29/01/2018

• Receiving an assertion error when compiling a rule containing a syntax error

Version 2.1.0 - 02/05/2018

• Support Node.js 10
• Scanner.scan() doesn't use a lock before checking rules are compiled on a scanner

Version 2.1.2 - 06/06/2018

• Set NoSpaceships Ltd to be the owner and maintainer

Version 2.1.3 - 07/06/2018

• Remove redundant sections from README.md

Version 2.1.4 - 08/08/2018

• Value of a meta field is cut off at the first colon
• Documentation errors

Version 2.2.0 - 11/06/2019

• Upgrade nan to 2.14.x and add support for Node.js 12.x
• Get rid of all deprecation warnings
• Update error messages used by some of the unit tests

License

Copyright (c) 2018 NoSpaceships Ltd hello@nospaceships.com

Copyright (c) 2017 Stephen Vickers stephen.vickers.sv@gmail.com

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.