Description

This detector identifies insecure WebSocket connections in Dart applications that use unencrypted ws:// URLs instead of secure wss:// URLs. Unencrypted WebSocket connections expose data transmission to eavesdropping and man-in-the-middle attacks, compromising application security.

Detection Strategy

• The detector checks if the dart:io package is imported with WebSocket connection functionality

• It scans for WebSocket connection method calls (like WebSocket.connect) in non-test files

• It examines the first argument (URL) of WebSocket connection calls

• A vulnerability is reported when the URL argument uses the insecure ws:// protocol instead of the secure wss:// protocol

Vulnerable code example

import 'dart:io';

void main() async {
  // Insecure WebSocket connection using ws:// protocol
  await WebSocket.connect('ws://example.com/socket'); // Vulnerable: unencrypted connection
  
  // Variable with insecure URL
  final url = 'ws://api.example.com/realtime';...

✅ Secure code example

import 'dart:io';

void main() async {
  // Secure WebSocket connection using wss:// protocol
  await WebSocket.connect('wss://example.com/socket'); // Fixed: encrypted connection with TLS
  
  // Variable with secure URL
  final url = 'wss://api.example.com/realtime';...