data-flow.md

Data Flow

Data flows are the journey of a data element within the codebase. It maps out the journey of a data element from a source to a sink detected via static code analysis.

A data flow result consists of the following structure:

{
    "dataFlow": {
        "third_parties": <DataFlow>,
        "leakages": <DataFlow>,
        "storages": <DataFlow>,
        "internal_apis": <DataFlow>,
        "miscellaneous": <DataFlow>
    }
}

The structure of all data flow representations is similar. As an example, the following is the structure of a storage sink:

{
    "storages": [
        "sourceId": "string",
        "sinks": [
            {
                "sinkType": "string",
                "id": "string",
                "name": "string",
                "isSensitive": "boolean",
                "paths": [
                    {
                        "pathId": "string",
                        "path": [
                            {
                                "sample": "string",
                                "lineNumber": "int",
                                "columnNumber": "int",
                                "fileName": "string",
                                "excerpt": "string"
                            }
                        ]
                    }
                ]
            }
        ]
    ]
}

The parameters of the results are explained below:

Field	Description
third_parties	Third parties that are consuming data elements
leakages	Leakages that are consuming data elements
storages	Databases that are consuming data elements
internal_apis	Internal APIs that are consuming data elements
miscellaneous	Miscellaneous data flows

The parameters of a data flow results are explained below:

Field	Description
sourceId	ID of the source which is processed
sinks	A list of sinks that are detected in a particular type of sink
sinkType	The type of sink
sinks.Id	ID of the sink
name	Name of the sink
isSensitive	Boolean value indicating if the data element is sensitive
paths	A list of paths defining the data flow of the element
pathId	Unique ID of the path
path	An occurrence of a data element
sample	name of the entity in which the data element is processed
lineNumber	Line number of the occurance
columnNumber	Column number of the occurance
fileName	Name of the file where the occurrence is detected
excerpt	A dump of the code around the occurrence