How to Restrict File Upload Types using C#/.NET Core

Anti-virus/malware policies are often configured separately from file restriction and content verification policies, but the free-to-use API provided in this article combines all these policies in a single API request. This API scans files for a growing list of 17 million+ virus and malware signatures and allows you to restrict unwanted file types by “whitelisting” acceptable file extensions in a comma-separated list. It also allows you to block a variety of non-malware threat types including executables, scripts, macros, and more.

You can take advantage of this API using C# code examples in two quick steps. First, run the following command to install the client SDK:

Install-Package Cloudmersive.APIClient.NET.VirusScan -Version 3.0.4

After that, copy and paste the following code to structure your request:

using System;
using System.Diagnostics;
using Cloudmersive.APIClient.NET.VirusScan.Api;
using Cloudmersive.APIClient.NET.VirusScan.Client;
using Cloudmersive.APIClient.NET.VirusScan.Model;

namespace Example
{
    public class ScanFileAdvancedExample
    {
        public void main()
        {
            // Configure API key authorization: Apikey
            Configuration.Default.AddApiKey("Apikey", "YOUR_API_KEY");

            var apiInstance = new ScanApi();
            var inputFile = new System.IO.FileStream("C:\\temp\\inputfile", System.IO.FileMode.Open); // System.IO.Stream | Input file to perform the operation on.
            var allowExecutables = true;  // bool? | Set to false to block executable files (program code) from being allowed in the input file.  Default is false (recommended). (optional) 
            var allowInvalidFiles = true;  // bool? | Set to false to block invalid files, such as a PDF file that is not really a valid PDF file, or a Word Document that is not a valid Word Document.  Default is false (recommended). (optional) 
            var allowScripts = true;  // bool? | Set to false to block script files, such as a PHP files, Python scripts, and other malicious content or security threats that can be embedded in the file.  Set to true to allow these file types.  Default is false (recommended). (optional) 
            var allowPasswordProtectedFiles = true;  // bool? | Set to false to block password protected and encrypted files, such as encrypted zip and rar files, and other files that seek to circumvent scanning through passwords.  Set to true to allow these file types.  Default is false (recommended). (optional) 
            var allowMacros = true;  // bool? | Set to false to block macros and other threats embedded in document files, such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint embedded Macros, and other files that contain embedded content threats.  Set to true to allow these file types.  Default is false (recommended). (optional) 
            var allowXmlExternalEntities = true;  // bool? | Set to false to block XML External Entities and other threats embedded in XML files, and other files that contain embedded content threats.  Set to true to allow these file types.  Default is false (recommended). (optional) 
            var allowInsecureDeserialization = true;  // bool? | Set to false to block Insecure Deserialization and other threats embedded in JSON and other object serialization files, and other files that contain embedded content threats.  Set to true to allow these file types.  Default is false (recommended). (optional) 
            var allowHtml = true;  // bool? | Set to false to block HTML input in the top level file; HTML can contain XSS, scripts, local file accesses and other threats.  Set to true to allow these file types.  Default is false (recommended) [for API keys created prior to the release of this feature default is true for backward compatability]. (optional) 
            var restrictFileTypes = restrictFileTypes_example;  // string | Specify a restricted set of file formats to allow as clean as a comma-separated list of file formats, such as .pdf,.docx,.png would allow only PDF, PNG and Word document files.  All files must pass content verification against this list of file formats, if they do not, then the result will be returned as CleanResult=false.  Set restrictFileTypes parameter to null or empty string to disable; default is disabled. (optional) 

            try
            {
                // Advanced Scan a file for viruses
                VirusScanAdvancedResult result = apiInstance.ScanFileAdvanced(inputFile, allowExecutables, allowInvalidFiles, allowScripts, allowPasswordProtectedFiles, allowMacros, allowXmlExternalEntities, allowInsecureDeserialization, allowHtml, restrictFileTypes);
                Debug.WriteLine(result);
            }
            catch (Exception e)
            {
                Debug.Print("Exception when calling ScanApi.ScanFileAdvanced: " + e.Message );
            }
        }
    }
}

Now you can easily apply file restrictions, set custom threat rules, and limit your file upload types to a specified list. It’s just that easy!