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  1. JDK
  2. JDK-8306461

ObjectInputStream::readObject() should handle negative array sizes without throwing NegativeArraySizeExceptions

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      Reported by: Yakov Shafranovich (yakovsh@amazon.com)

      Currently, `ObjectInputStream::readObject()` doesn't explicitly checks for a negative array length in the deserialization stream. Instead it calls `j.l.r.Array::newInstance(..)` with the negative length which results in a `NegativeArraySizeException`. NegativeArraySizeException is an unchecked exception which is neither declared in the signature of `ObjectInputStream::readObject()` nor mentioned in its API specification. It is therefore not obvious for users of `ObjectInputStream::readObject()` that they may have to handle `NegativeArraySizeException`s. It would therefor be better if a negative array length in the deserialization stream would be automatically wrapped in an `InvalidClassException` which is a checked exception (derived from `IOException` via `ObjectStreamException`) and declared in the signature of `ObjectInputStream::readObject()`.

      If we do the negative array length check in `ObjectInputStream::readObject()` before filtering, this will then also fix `ObjectInputFilter.FilterInfo::arrayLength()` which is defined as:
      ```
      Returns:
      the non-negative number of array elements when deserializing an array of the class, otherwise -1
      ```
      but currently returns a negative value if the array length is negative.

            simonis Volker Simonis
            simonis Volker Simonis
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