gh-109638: Avoid pathological backtracking in csv.Sniffer

Author: Punisheroot

Lib/csv.py

@@ -328,20 +328,57 @@ def _guess_quote_and_delimiter(self, data, delimiters):
             delim = ''
             skipinitialspace = 0
 
-        # if we see an extra quote between delimiters, we've got a
-        # double quoted format
-        dq_regexp = re.compile(
-                               r"((%(delim)s)|^)\W*%(quote)s[^%(delim)s\n]*%(quote)s[^%(delim)s\n]*%(quote)s\W*((%(delim)s)|$)" % \
-                               {'delim':re.escape(delim), 'quote':quotechar}, re.MULTILINE)
+        doublequote = self._detect_doublequote(data, delim, quotechar)
 
+        return (quotechar, doublequote, delim, skipinitialspace)
 
 
-        if dq_regexp.search(data):
-            doublequote = True
-        else:
-            doublequote = False
+    def _detect_doublequote(self, data, delimiter, quotechar):
+        """
+        Return whether a doubled quote occurs inside a quoted field.
 
-        return (quotechar, doublequote, delim, skipinitialspace)
+        The first regexp is a fast, linear pre-filter. Since it is not
+        anchored, a match can start at a delimiter inside another quoted
+        field. The second regexp rules out well-formed input without doubled
+        quotes. Both regexps use possessive repetition to avoid backtracking.
+        """
+        import re
+
+        escaped_delimiter = re.escape(delimiter)
+        escaped_quote = re.escape(quotechar)
+        values = {'delim': escaped_delimiter, 'quote': escaped_quote}
+        if delimiter:
+            candidate = re.compile(
+                    r"(?:%(delim)s|\r|^) *+%(quote)s"
+                    r"[^%(quote)s]*+%(quote)s%(quote)s"
+                    r"(?:%(quote)s%(quote)s|[^%(quote)s]++)*+"
+                    r"%(quote)s(?:%(delim)s|(?=\r)|$)"
+                    % values, re.MULTILINE)
+            separator = rf"(?:{escaped_delimiter}|\r\n|\r|\n)"
+            plain = (
+                    rf"(?! *+{escaped_quote})"
+                    rf"[^{escaped_delimiter}\r\n]*+")
+        else:
+            # An empty delimiter must not create a zero-width alternative
+            # which makes re.search() retry the pattern at every position.
+            candidate = re.compile(
+                    r"(?:[\r\n]|\A) *+%(quote)s"
+                    r"[^%(quote)s]*+%(quote)s%(quote)s"
+                    r"(?:%(quote)s%(quote)s|[^%(quote)s]++)*+"
+                    r"%(quote)s(?=[\r\n]|\Z)"
+                    % values, re.MULTILINE)
+            separator = r"(?:\r\n|\r|\n)"
+            plain = rf"(?! *+{escaped_quote})[^\r\n]*+"
+
+        if candidate.search(data) is None:
+            return False
+
+        quoted = (
+                rf" *+{escaped_quote}[^{escaped_quote}]*+{escaped_quote}")
+        field = rf"(?:{quoted}|{plain})"
+        without_doublequote = re.compile(
+                rf"\A{field}(?:{separator}{field})*+\Z")
+        return without_doublequote.match(data) is None
 
 
     def _guess_delimiter(self, data, delimiters):

Lib/test/test_csv.py

@@ -1501,6 +1501,12 @@ def test_delimiters(self):
         self.assertEqual(dialect.delimiter, ',')
         self.assertEqual(dialect.quotechar, '"')
 
+    def test_sniff_regex_backtracking(self):
+        # gh-109638: this artificial sample used to take minutes.
+        sniffer = csv.Sniffer()
+        sample = '"",' * 100 + '"' * 100 + '0' + '"' * 100 + '0'
+        self.assertEqual(sniffer.sniff(sample).delimiter, ',')
+
     def test_doublequote(self):
         sniffer = csv.Sniffer()
         dialect = sniffer.sniff(self.header1)
@@ -1514,6 +1520,81 @@ def test_doublequote(self):
         dialect = sniffer.sniff(self.sample9)
         self.assertTrue(dialect.doublequote)
 
+    def test_doublequote_without_delimiter(self):
+        sniffer = csv.Sniffer()
+        for quotechar in ('"', "'"):
+            with self.subTest(quotechar=quotechar):
+                self.assertEqual(
+                    sniffer._guess_quote_and_delimiter(
+                        f'{quotechar}a{quotechar}{quotechar}b{quotechar}',
+                        None,
+                    ),
+                    (quotechar, True, '', 0),
+                )
+                self.assertEqual(
+                    sniffer._guess_quote_and_delimiter(
+                        f'{quotechar}ab{quotechar}',
+                        None,
+                    ),
+                    (quotechar, False, '', 0),
+                )
+                self.assertEqual(
+                    sniffer._guess_quote_and_delimiter(
+                        f'{quotechar}a{quotechar}\n'
+                        f'x{quotechar}{quotechar}{quotechar}{quotechar}x',
+                        None,
+                    ),
+                    (quotechar, False, '', 0),
+                )
+
+    def test_doublequote_with_carriage_return(self):
+        sniffer = csv.Sniffer()
+        for record_delimiter in ('\r\n', '\r'):
+            for quotechar in ('"', "'"):
+                with self.subTest(
+                    record_delimiter=record_delimiter,
+                    quotechar=quotechar,
+                ):
+                    data = (
+                        f'x,{quotechar}plain{quotechar}{record_delimiter}'
+                        f'{quotechar}a{quotechar}{quotechar}b{quotechar},y'
+                        f'{record_delimiter}'
+                    )
+                    self.assertEqual(
+                        sniffer._guess_quote_and_delimiter(data, None),
+                        (quotechar, True, ',', 0),
+                    )
+                    self.assertIs(sniffer.sniff(data).doublequote, True)
+
+    def test_doublequote_across_quoted_fields(self):
+        sniffer = csv.Sniffer()
+        for delimiter in (',', ' ', ''):
+            for quotechar in ('"', "'"):
+                with self.subTest(
+                    delimiter=delimiter,
+                    quotechar=quotechar,
+                ):
+                    separator = delimiter or '\n'
+                    data = separator.join((
+                        f'{quotechar}{separator}{quotechar}',
+                        quotechar * 2,
+                        f'{quotechar}{separator}{quotechar}',
+                    ))
+                    result = sniffer._guess_quote_and_delimiter(data, None)
+                    self.assertEqual(result[0], quotechar)
+                    self.assertIs(result[1], False)
+                    self.assertEqual(result[2], delimiter)
+                    if delimiter:
+                        self.assertIs(
+                            sniffer.sniff(data).doublequote,
+                            False,
+                        )
+                    self.assertFalse(sniffer._detect_doublequote(
+                        f'a{quotechar}b{separator}{data}',
+                        delimiter,
+                        quotechar,
+                    ))
+
     def test_guess_delimiter_crlf_not_chosen(self):
         # Ensure that we pick the real delimiter ("|") over "\r" in a tie.
         sniffer = csv.Sniffer()

Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2026-07-29-13-00-00.gh-issue-109638.SnifF1.rst

@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+Prevent pathological regular expression backtracking in :class:`csv.Sniffer`
+when detecting doubled quote characters. Improve detection for quoted fields,
+avoid matching across quoted fields, and handle CRLF or CR record delimiters.