Using Compile Assembly From Source to evaluate math equations in C#

Question

I am considering parsing simple math equations by compiling from source at runtime. I have heard that there are security considerations that I should be aware of before using this approach, but I can’t find any info on this.

Thanks

C# .net 2.0, winforms

Answer 1

The problem with this approach is that a user could enter any code they wanted (unless you sanitize it). They could put in code to erase all your files. If this is running on a server, do not do this. Also, even on a desktop, running a compiler just to evaluate an equation is really slow. Make a grammar for your equations with a tool like ANTLR, and embed the parser into your program.