XARF JavaScript/TypeScript Library

A JavaScript/TypeScript library for parsing, validating, and generating XARF v4 (eXtended Abuse Reporting Format) reports.

Features

• Parse XARF reports from JSON with validation and typed results
• Generate XARF-compliant reports with auto-generated metadata (UUIDs, timestamps)
• Validate reports against the official JSON schemas with detailed errors and warnings
• Full TypeScript support with discriminated union types for all 7 categories
• v3 backward compatibility with automatic detection and conversion
• Schema-driven — validation rules derived from the official xarf-spec schemas, not hardcoded

Installation

npm install @xarf/xarf

Quick Start

Parsing a Report

import { parse } from '@xarf/xarf';

// Missing first_seen and source_port produce validation errors.
const { report, errors, warnings } = parse({
  xarf_version: '4.2.0',
  report_id: 'a1b2c3d4-e5f6-7890-abcd-ef1234567890',
  timestamp: '2024-01-15T10:30:00Z',
  // first_seen: '2024-01-15T10:00:00Z',
  reporter: {
    org: 'Security Team',
    contact: '[email protected]',
    domain: 'example.com',
  },
  sender: {
    org: 'Security Team',
    contact: '[email protected]',
    domain: 'example.com',
  },
  source_identifier: '192.0.2.100',
  // source_port: 1234,
  category: 'connection',
  type: 'ddos',
  evidence_source: 'honeypot',
  destination_ip: '203.0.113.10',
  protocol: 'tcp',
});

if (errors.length === 0) {
  console.log(report.category); // 'connection'
} else {
  console.log('Validation errors:', errors);
}

Creating a Report

import { createReport, createEvidence } from '@xarf/xarf';

// Returns { content_type, payload (base64), hash, size, description }
const evidence = createEvidence('message/rfc822', rawEmailContent, {
  description: 'Original spam email',
  hashAlgorithm: 'sha256',
});

// xarf_version, report_id, and timestamp are auto-generated
const { report, errors, warnings } = createReport({
  category: 'messaging',
  type: 'spam',
  source_identifier: '192.0.2.100',
  reporter: {
    org: 'Example Security',
    contact: '[email protected]',
    domain: 'example.com',
  },
  sender: {
    org: 'Example Security',
    contact: '[email protected]',
    domain: 'example.com',
  },
  evidence_source: 'spamtrap',
  description: 'Spam email detected from source',
  protocol: 'smtp',
  smtp_from: '[email protected]',
  evidence: [evidence],
});

console.log(JSON.stringify(report, null, 2));

API Reference

parse(jsonData, options?)

Parse and validate a XARF report from JSON. Supports both v4 and v3 (legacy) formats — v3 reports are automatically converted to v4 with deprecation warnings.

import { parse } from '@xarf/xarf';

const { report, errors, warnings, info } = parse(jsonData, options?);

Parameters:

• jsonData: string | Record<string, unknown> — JSON string or object containing a XARF report
• options.strict?: boolean — Throw XARFValidationError on validation failures (default: false)
• options.showMissingOptional?: boolean — Include info about missing optional fields (default: false)

Returns ParseResult:

• report: XARFReport — The parsed report, typed by category
• errors: string[] — Validation errors (empty if valid)
• warnings: string[] — Validation warnings
• info?: ValidationInfo[] — Missing optional field info (only when showMissingOptional is true)

createReport(input, options?)

Create a validated XARF report with auto-generated metadata. Automatically fills xarf_version, report_id (UUID), and timestamp (ISO 8601) if not provided.

import { createReport } from '@xarf/xarf';

const { report, errors, warnings } = createReport(input, options?);

Parameters:

• input: ReportInput — Report data. A discriminated union on category that narrows type-safe fields per category (e.g., MessagingReportInput, ConnectionReportInput, etc.)
• options.strict?: boolean — Throw on validation failures (default: false)
• options.showMissingOptional?: boolean — Include info about missing optional fields (default: false)

Returns CreateReportResult:

• report: XARFReport — The generated report
• errors: ValidationError[] — Structured validation errors ({ field, message, value? })
• warnings: ValidationWarning[] — Structured validation warnings ({ field, message, value? })
• info?: ValidationInfo[] — Missing optional field info (only when showMissingOptional is true)

createEvidence(contentType, payload, options?)

Create an evidence object with automatic base64 encoding, hashing, and size calculation.

import { createEvidence } from '@xarf/xarf';

const evidence = createEvidence(contentType, payload, options?);

Parameters:

• contentType: string — MIME type of the evidence (e.g., 'message/rfc822')
• payload: string | Buffer — The evidence data
• options.description?: string — Human-readable description
• options.hashAlgorithm?: 'sha256' | 'sha512' | 'sha1' | 'md5' — Hash algorithm (default: 'sha256')

Returns XARFEvidence with computed hash, size, and base64-encoded payload.

schemaRegistry

Access schema-derived validation rules and metadata programmatically.

import { schemaRegistry } from '@xarf/xarf';

// Get all valid categories
schemaRegistry.getCategories();
// Set { 'messaging', 'connection', 'content', 'infrastructure', 'copyright', 'vulnerability', 'reputation' }

// Get valid types for a category
schemaRegistry.getTypesForCategory('connection');
// Set { 'ddos', 'port_scan', 'login_attack', ... }

// Check if a category/type combination is valid
schemaRegistry.isValidType('connection', 'ddos'); // true

// Get field metadata including descriptions
schemaRegistry.getFieldMetadata('confidence');
// { description: '...', required: false, recommended: true, ... }

Validation Details

Both parse() and createReport() run validation internally. Additional behaviors:

• Unknown fields trigger warnings (or errors in strict mode)
• Missing optional fields can be discovered with showMissingOptional: true:

const { info } = parse(report, { showMissingOptional: true });

if (info) {
  info.forEach(({ field, message }) => {
    console.log(`${field}: ${message}`);
    // e.g., "description: OPTIONAL - Human-readable description of the abuse"
    // e.g., "confidence: RECOMMENDED - Confidence score between 0.0 and 1.0"
  });
}

v3 Backward Compatibility

The library automatically detects XARF v3 reports (by the Version field) and converts them to v4 during parsing. Converted reports include legacy_version: '3' and deprecation warnings.

import { parse } from '@xarf/xarf';

const { report, warnings } = parse(v3Report);

console.log(report.xarf_version); // '4.2.0'
console.log(report.category); // mapped category (e.g., 'messaging')
console.log(report.legacy_version); // '3'
// warnings includes deprecation notice + conversion details

You can also use the low-level utilities directly:

import { isXARFv3, convertV3toV4, getV3DeprecationWarning } from '@xarf/xarf';

if (isXARFv3(jsonData)) {
  const warnings: string[] = [];
  const v4Report = convertV3toV4(v3Report, warnings);
  console.log(getV3DeprecationWarning());
}

Unknown v3 report types cause a parse error listing the supported types. See MIGRATION_V3_TO_V4.md for the full type mapping and migration strategies.

Schema Management

This library validates against the official xarf-spec JSON schemas. Schemas are fetched automatically on npm install based on the version configured in package.json:

"xarfSpec": {
  "version": "v4.2.0"
}

# Check if a newer version of xarf-spec is available
npm run check-schema-updates

# Re-fetch schemas (e.g., if missing or to force a refresh)
npm run fetch-schemas

To update to a newer spec version, change the version in package.json and run npm install.

Development

npm test                  # Run tests
npm run test:coverage     # Run tests with coverage
npm run build             # Build TypeScript to JavaScript
npm run typecheck         # Type-check without emitting
npm run lint              # Run ESLint
npm run format:check      # Check Prettier formatting

See CONTRIBUTING.md for development guidelines.

Links

• XARF Specification
• GitHub Repository
• npm Package
• Issue Tracker
• Migration Guide (v3 → v4)
• License (MIT)