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CodeQL Python query runs extremely slow on medium-sized project using TaintTracking::Global #19928

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@half450

Hi team,

I'm experiencing very slow performance when running a CodeQL query on a Python project using TaintTracking::Global. The analysis never finishes, even after more than 2 hours, on a project that I believe is not very large. Below are some details:

  • CVE project: CVE-2024-23637
  • Python files: 263
  • Total lines: ~88,981
  • Sources: < 200
  • Sinks: < 200
  • Tracking config: TaintTracking::Global<RemoteToFileConfiguration>

My query looks like this:

module RemoteToFileConfiguration implements DataFlow::ConfigSig {
  predicate isSource(DataFlow::Node source) {
    MySources::isSource(source)
  }

  predicate isSink(DataFlow::Node sink) {
    MySinks::isMySink(sink)
  }
}

module Flow = TaintTracking::Global<RemoteToFileConfiguration>;
import Flow::PathGraph

from Flow::PathNode source, Flow::PathNode sink
where Flow::flowPath(source, sink)
select sink.getNode(), source, sink, "Flow path from source to sink"

I defined sinks or sources like this (simplified):

module MySinks {
  class Sink extends DataFlow::Node {
    Sink() {
      exists(FunctionValue func, Call call |
        func.getQualifiedName() = "run_code" or
        func.getQualifiedName() = "check_syntax_error" or
        ...
        call.getFunc().pointsTo(func) and
        this = DataFlow::exprNode(call.getAnArg())
      )
    }
  }

  predicate isMySink(DataFlow::Node sink) {
    exists(Sink s | s = sink)
  }
}

My questions:

  1. Why is the performance so slow in this case?
  2. Are there any best practices for optimizing TaintTracking::Global on Python?
  3. I tried using func.getQualifiedName() with a full path like "Module xml.etree.ElementInclude.Function default_loader", but it didn’t work in VSCode (the function wasn't found). Is there a correct way to define sinks using fully qualified names for Python?

Thank you very much for any guidance or suggestions!

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