ReferenceError: Excessive alias count indicates a resource exhaustion attack

[LSarribouette]

Hi all,

We are attempting another way to get data for our model: we use only excel files.
We have about 50 excel files and around 255 calls with GET DIRECT DATA, 430 calls with GET DIRECT LOOKUPS, 65 calls with GET DIRECT CONSTANTS such as:

StockTUObsDat[Africa,LV]:=
	GET DIRECT DATA('Africa.xlsx' , 'Scenario', '15' , 'H16') ~~|

ElecProdTypeObsTab[InfrastructureProdElec,Africa]=
	GET DIRECT LOOKUPS('Africa.xlsx','Scenario','121','H122') ~~|

StartingDatePop[Country]=
	GET DIRECT CONSTANTS('AllcountryVDFX.xlsx','Scenario', 'H25')
	~	
	~		|

We encounter this error: ReferenceError: Excessive alias count indicates a resource exhaustion attack.

What do you think?

We do have a simplified model that works properly, with about 400 calls to excel files in total. May it be linked to the number of calls?

Complete log, at npm create @sdeverywhere:

ReferenceError: Excessive alias count indicates a resource exhaustion attack
    at Alias.toJSON (/home/sarribol/.npm/_npx/7c716b646d7d555a/node_modules/yaml/dist/nodes/Alias.js:61:23)
    at Object.toJS (/home/sarribol/.npm/_npx/7c716b646d7d555a/node_modules/yaml/dist/nodes/toJS.js:22:26)
    at Object.addPairToJSMap (/home/sarribol/.npm/_npx/7c716b646d7d555a/node_modules/yaml/dist/nodes/addPairToJSMap.js:25:34)
    at YAMLMap.toJSON (/home/sarribol/.npm/_npx/7c716b646d7d555a/node_modules/yaml/dist/nodes/YAMLMap.js:124:28)
    at Object.toJS (/home/sarribol/.npm/_npx/7c716b646d7d555a/node_modules/yaml/dist/nodes/toJS.js:22:26)
    at YAMLSeq.toJSON (/home/sarribol/.npm/_npx/7c716b646d7d555a/node_modules/yaml/dist/nodes/YAMLSeq.js:76:27)
    at Object.toJS (/home/sarribol/.npm/_npx/7c716b646d7d555a/node_modules/yaml/dist/nodes/toJS.js:22:26)
    at Document.toJS (/home/sarribol/.npm/_npx/7c716b646d7d555a/node_modules/yaml/dist/doc/Document.js:302:26)
    at Object.parse (/home/sarribol/.npm/_npx/7c716b646d7d555a/node_modules/yaml/dist/public-api.js:78:16)
    at readModelVars (file:///home/sarribol/.npm/_npx/7c716b646d7d555a/node_modules/@sdeverywhere/create/dist/index.js:393:24)
⚠ The mdl file failed to load. We will continue setting things up, and you can diagnose the issue later.

[chrispcampbell]

Hi @LSarribouette, thanks for reporting this. The issue is caused by some YAML parsing code in the @sdeverywhere/create package, but we've had an open issue for some time (see #357) about removing that dependency because we don't need to be reading a YAML file there at all. I will work on updating that code in the create package later today or tomorrow and post a follow-up here when it's resolved.

Also, just to confirm, once you've created the project, have you had any trouble getting your model to work? The error above should be limited to the initial model read by the create package, and it shouldn't appear when compiling the model in later phases.

[LSarribouette]

Hi @chrispcampbell,

Thank you for your answer!

Indeed it doesn't appear when compiling the model in later phases. I thought it was blocking so I didn't continue!

Does it mean we can just ignore it for now?

[chrispcampbell]

Hi @LSarribouette, yes, that's correct, you can ignore the error. There's an informative message just after the error message you posted above:

⚠ The mdl file failed to load. We will continue setting things up, and you can diagnose the issue later.

That message is intended to convey that it's not a blocking issue, but maybe we can improve the message to make it more clear that the problem doesn't prevent you from continuing to set up your project.

[chrispcampbell]

@LSarribouette: I fixed the above issue in the @sdeverywhere/create package and published a new version, so you shouldn't run into that ReferenceError issue any longer, but please let me know if you run into any other issues.

[LSarribouette]

@chrispcampbell, thank you! We don't run into the error anymore.