Maximum amount of errors in CSharpCodeProvider.CompileAssemblyFromFile

Question

I use CSharpCodeProvider to compile instant plugins for my app.

Right now it is possible to try to compile a file, that looks good, but generates many errors, for example a C# code glued with a binary file. There are many characters, that are treated with error CS1056: Unexpected character.

This behaviour is expected, but a compilation process of such a "malicious" file is very time consuming.

One solution that I find reasonable would be to limit the number of errors, after which CSharpCodeProvider.CompileAssemblyFromFile returns.

Is it possible to set such a limit?

I don't really want to inspect the file very carefully in the first place, if it's possible to avoid.

Answer 1

I don't know if there's a property or field of CSharpCodeProvider that can control this, but a possible solution is to change the question you're asking- if the problem is the time it takes to attempt compilation, rather than the number of errors, my solution would be to run the CSharpCodeProvider on a separate task, but kill the task if it takes too long to complete.

Then you can provide your own error message:

"Your code is too bad. It can't be compiled in less than 5 minutes." :P

As for security, you might try running things in a separate AppDomain via Application.Run? Dunno how complex your application is, but you might start a new instance of your main form with the plugin injected.