CVE-2021-21333 (published 2021-03-26T20:15Z)

Synapse is a Matrix reference homeserver written in python (pypi package matrix-synapse). Matrix is an ecosystem for open federated Instant Messaging and VoIP. In Synapse before version 1.27.0, the notification emails sent for notifications for missed messages or for an expiring account are subject to HTML injection. In the case of the notification for missed messages, this could allow an attacker to insert forged content into the email. The account expiry feature is not enabled by default and the HTML injection is not controllable by an attacker. This is fixed in version 1.27.0.

Severity: LOW
CVSS v2 base score: 2.6 (AV:N/AC:H/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:N)
CVSS v3 base score: 6.1, MEDIUM (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:N/I:H/A:N)

Weakness information:
cwe_id: CWE-79
cwe_name: Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
description: The product does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes user-controllable input before it is placed in output that is used as a web page that is served to other users.
extended_description: 
            Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities occur when:
            
               Untrusted data enters a web application, typically from a web request.
               The web application dynamically generates a web page that contains this untrusted data.
               During page generation, the application does not prevent the data from containing content that is executable by a web browser, such as JavaScript, HTML tags, HTML attributes, mouse events, Flash, ActiveX, etc.
               A victim visits the generated web page through a web browser, which contains malicious script that was injected using the untrusted data.
               Since the script comes from a web page that was sent by the web server, the victim's web browser executes the malicious script in the context of the web server's domain.
               This effectively violates the intention of the web browser's same-origin policy, which states that scripts in one domain should not be able to access resources or run code in a different domain.
            
            There are three main kinds of XSS:
            
               
                  Type 1: Reflected XSS (or Non-Persistent) - 
         			The server reads data directly from the HTTP request and reflects it back in the HTTP response. Reflected XSS exploits occur when an attacker causes a victim to supply dangerous content to a vulnerable web application, which is then reflected back to the victim and executed by the web browser. The most common mechanism for delivering malicious content is to include it as a parameter in a URL that is posted publicly or e-mailed directly to the victim. URLs constructed in this manner constitute the core of many phishing schemes, whereby an attacker convinces a victim to visit a URL that refers to a vulnerable site. After the site reflects the attacker's content back to the victim, the content is executed by the victim's browser.
               
                  Type 2: Stored XSS (or Persistent) - 
               The application stores dangerous data in a database, message forum, visitor log, or other trusted data store. At a later time, the dangerous data is subsequently read back into the application and included in dynamic content. From an attacker's perspective, the optimal place to inject malicious content is in an area that is displayed to either many users or particularly interesting users. Interesting users typically have elevated privileges in the application or interact with sensitive data that is valuable to the attacker. If one of these users executes malicious content, the attacker may be able to perform privileged operations on behalf of the user or gain access to sensitive data belonging to the user. For example, the attacker might inject XSS into a log message, which might not be handled properly when an administrator views the logs.
            
               
                  Type 0: DOM-Based XSS - 
               In DOM-based XSS, the client performs the injection of XSS into the page; in the other types, the server performs the injection. DOM-based XSS generally involves server-controlled, trusted script that is sent to the client, such as Javascript that performs sanity checks on a form before the user submits it. If the server-supplied script processes user-supplied data and then injects it back into the web page (such as with dynamic HTML), then DOM-based XSS is possible.
            
            
            Once the malicious script is injected, the attacker can perform a variety of malicious activities. The attacker could transfer private information, such as cookies that may include session information, from the victim's machine to the attacker. The attacker could send malicious requests to a web site on behalf of the victim, which could be especially dangerous to the site if the victim has administrator privileges to manage that site. Phishing attacks could be used to emulate trusted web sites and trick the victim into entering a password, allowing the attacker to compromise the victim's account on that web site. Finally, the script could exploit a vulnerability in the web browser itself possibly taking over the victim's machine, sometimes referred to as "drive-by hacking."
            In many cases, the attack can be launched without the victim even being aware of it. Even with careful users, attackers frequently use a variety of methods to encode the malicious portion of the attack, such as URL encoding or Unicode, so the request looks less suspicious.
         
         

Fix information:
repo_url: https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse
commit_details: repo_url: https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse
author: Patrick Cloke
author_date: 2021-01-27 10:59:50-05:00
msg: Clean-up the template loading code. (#9200)

* Enables autoescape by default for HTML files.
* Adds a new read_template method for reading a single template.
* Some logic clean-up.
repository: repo_url: https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse
repo_name: matrix-org/synapse
description: Synapse: Matrix homeserver written in Python/Twisted.
repo_language: Python
owner: matrix-org
file_changes: filename: UPGRADE.rst
change_type: ModificationType.MODIFY
diff: @@ -85,6 +85,43 @@ for example:
      wget https://packages.matrix.org/debian/pool/main/m/matrix-synapse-py3/matrix-synapse-py3_1.3.0+stretch1_amd64.deb
      dpkg -i matrix-synapse-py3_1.3.0+stretch1_amd64.deb
 
+Upgrading to v1.27.0
+====================
+
+Changes to HTML templates
+-------------------------
+
+The HTML templates for SSO and email notifications now have `Jinja2's autoescape <https://jinja.palletsprojects.com/en/2.11.x/api/#autoescaping>`_
+enabled for files ending in ``.html``, ``.htm``, and ``.xml``. If you hae customised
+these templates and see issues when viewing them you might need to update them.
+It is expected that most configurations will need no changes.
+
+If you have customised the templates *names* for these templates it is recommended
+to verify they end in ``.html`` to ensure autoescape is enabled.
+
+The above applies to the following templates:
+
+* ``add_threepid.html``
+* ``add_threepid_failure.html``
+* ``add_threepid_success.html``
+* ``notice_expiry.html``
+* ``notice_expiry.html``
+* ``notif_mail.html`` (which, by default, includes ``room.html`` and ``notif.html``)
+* ``password_reset.html``
+* ``password_reset_confirmation.html``
+* ``password_reset_failure.html``
+* ``password_reset_success.html``
+* ``registration.html``
+* ``registration_failure.html``
+* ``registration_success.html``
+* ``sso_account_deactivated.html``
+* ``sso_auth_bad_user.html``
+* ``sso_auth_confirm.html``
+* ``sso_auth_success.html``
+* ``sso_error.html``
+* ``sso_login_idp_picker.html``
+* ``sso_redirect_confirm.html``
+
 Upgrading to v1.26.0
 ====================
 

programming_language: Markdown
filename: 9200.misc
change_type: ModificationType.ADD
diff: @@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Clean-up template loading code.

programming_language: SQL
filename: _base.py
change_type: ModificationType.MODIFY
diff: @@ -203,11 +203,28 @@ class Config:
         with open(file_path) as file_stream:
             return file_stream.read()
 
+    def read_template(self, filename: str) -> jinja2.Template:
+        """Load a template file from disk.
+
+        This function will attempt to load the given template from the default Synapse
+        template directory.
+
+        Files read are treated as Jinja templates. The templates is not rendered yet
+        and has autoescape enabled.
+
+        Args:
+            filename: A template filename to read.
+
+        Raises:
+            ConfigError: if the file's path is incorrect or otherwise cannot be read.
+
+        Returns:
+            A jinja2 template.
+        """
+        return self.read_templates([filename])[0]
+
     def read_templates(
-        self,
-        filenames: List[str],
-        custom_template_directory: Optional[str] = None,
-        autoescape: bool = False,
+        self, filenames: List[str], custom_template_directory: Optional[str] = None,
     ) -> List[jinja2.Template]:
         """Load a list of template files from disk using the given variables.
 
@@ -215,7 +232,8 @@ class Config:
         template directory. If `custom_template_directory` is supplied, that directory
         is tried first.
 
-        Files read are treated as Jinja templates. These templates are not rendered yet.
+        Files read are treated as Jinja templates. The templates are not rendered yet
+        and have autoescape enabled.
 
         Args:
             filenames: A list of template filenames to read.
@@ -223,16 +241,12 @@ class Config:
             custom_template_directory: A directory to try to look for the templates
                 before using the default Synapse template directory instead.
 
-            autoescape: Whether to autoescape variables before inserting them into the
-                template.
-
         Raises:
             ConfigError: if the file's path is incorrect or otherwise cannot be read.
 
         Returns:
             A list of jinja2 templates.
         """
-        templates = []
         search_directories = [self.default_template_dir]
 
         # The loader will first look in the custom template directory (if specified) for the
@@ -249,7 +263,7 @@ class Config:
             search_directories.insert(0, custom_template_directory)
 
         loader = jinja2.FileSystemLoader(search_directories)
-        env = jinja2.Environment(loader=loader, autoescape=autoescape)
+        env = jinja2.Environment(loader=loader, autoescape=jinja2.select_autoescape(),)
 
         # Update the environment with our custom filters
         env.filters.update(
@@ -259,12 +273,8 @@ class Config:
             }
         )
 
-        for filename in filenames:
-            # Load the template
-            template = env.get_template(filename)
-            templates.append(template)
-
-        return templates
+        # Load the templates
+        return [env.get_template(filename) for filename in filenames]
 
 
 def _format_ts_filter(value: int, format: str):

programming_language: Python
filename: captcha.py
change_type: ModificationType.MODIFY
diff: @@ -28,9 +28,7 @@ class CaptchaConfig(Config):
             "recaptcha_siteverify_api",
             "https://www.recaptcha.net/recaptcha/api/siteverify",
         )
-        self.recaptcha_template = self.read_templates(
-            ["recaptcha.html"], autoescape=True
-        )[0]
+        self.recaptcha_template = self.read_template("recaptcha.html")
 
     def generate_config_section(self, **kwargs):
         return """\

programming_language: Ruby
filename: consent_config.py
change_type: ModificationType.MODIFY
diff: @@ -89,7 +89,7 @@ class ConsentConfig(Config):
 
     def read_config(self, config, **kwargs):
         consent_config = config.get("user_consent")
-        self.terms_template = self.read_templates(["terms.html"], autoescape=True)[0]
+        self.terms_template = self.read_template("terms.html")
 
         if consent_config is None:
             return

programming_language: Python
filename: registration.py
change_type: ModificationType.MODIFY
diff: @@ -176,9 +176,7 @@ class RegistrationConfig(Config):
         self.session_lifetime = session_lifetime
 
         # The success template used during fallback auth.
-        self.fallback_success_template = self.read_templates(
-            ["auth_success.html"], autoescape=True
-        )[0]
+        self.fallback_success_template = self.read_template("auth_success.html")
 
     def generate_config_section(self, generate_secrets=False, **kwargs):
         if generate_secrets:

programming_language: Python
filename: mailer.py
change_type: ModificationType.MODIFY
diff: @@ -668,6 +668,15 @@ class Mailer:
 
 
 def safe_markup(raw_html: str) -> jinja2.Markup:
+    """
+    Sanitise a raw HTML string to a set of allowed tags and attributes, and linkify any bare URLs.
+
+    Args
+        raw_html: Unsafe HTML.
+
+    Returns:
+        A Markup object ready to safely use in a Jinja template.
+    """
     return jinja2.Markup(
         bleach.linkify(
             bleach.clean(
@@ -684,8 +693,13 @@ def safe_markup(raw_html: str) -> jinja2.Markup:
 
 def safe_text(raw_text: str) -> jinja2.Markup:
     """
-    Process text: treat it as HTML but escape any tags (ie. just escape the
-    HTML) then linkify it.
+    Sanitise text (escape any HTML tags), and then linkify any bare URLs.
+
+    Args
+        raw_text: Unsafe text which might include HTML markup.
+
+    Returns:
+        A Markup object ready to safely use in a Jinja template.
     """
     return jinja2.Markup(
         bleach.linkify(bleach.clean(raw_text, tags=[], attributes={}, strip=False))

programming_language: Python
filename: sso_auth_bad_user.html
change_type: ModificationType.MODIFY
diff: @@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
     <body>
         <div>
             <p>
-                We were unable to validate your <tt>{{server_name | e}}</tt> account via
+                We were unable to validate your <tt>{{ server_name }}</tt> account via
                 single-sign-on (SSO), because the SSO Identity Provider returned
                 different details than when you logged in.
             </p>

programming_language: HTML
filename: sso_auth_confirm.html
change_type: ModificationType.MODIFY
diff: @@ -5,8 +5,8 @@
     <body>
         <div>
             <p>
-                A client is trying to {{ description | e }}. To confirm this action,
-                <a href="{{ redirect_url | e }}">re-authenticate with single sign-on</a>.
+                A client is trying to {{ description }}. To confirm this action,
+                <a href="{{ redirect_url }}">re-authenticate with single sign-on</a>.
                 If you did not expect this, your account may be compromised!
             </p>
         </div>

programming_language: HTML
filename: sso_error.html
change_type: ModificationType.MODIFY
diff: @@ -12,7 +12,7 @@
     <p>
         There was an error during authentication:
     </p>
-    <div id="errormsg" style="margin:20px 80px">{{ error_description | e }}</div>
+    <div id="errormsg" style="margin:20px 80px">{{ error_description }}</div>
     <p>
         If you are seeing this page after clicking a link sent to you via email, make
         sure you only click the confirmation link once, and that you open the

programming_language: HTML
filename: sso_login_idp_picker.html
change_type: ModificationType.MODIFY
diff: @@ -3,22 +3,22 @@
     <head>
         <meta charset="UTF-8">
         <link rel="stylesheet" href="/_matrix/static/client/login/style.css">
-        <title>{{server_name | e}} Login</title>
+        <title>{{ server_name }} Login</title>
     </head>
     <body>
         <div id="container">
-            <h1 id="title">{{server_name | e}} Login</h1>
+            <h1 id="title">{{ server_name }} Login</h1>
             <div class="login_flow">
                 <p>Choose one of the following identity providers:</p>
             <form>
-                <input type="hidden" name="redirectUrl" value="{{redirect_url | e}}">
+                <input type="hidden" name="redirectUrl" value="{{ redirect_url }}">
                 <ul class="radiobuttons">
 {% for p in providers %}
                     <li>
-                        <input type="radio" name="idp" id="prov{{loop.index}}" value="{{p.idp_id}}">
-                        <label for="prov{{loop.index}}">{{p.idp_name | e}}</label>
+                        <input type="radio" name="idp" id="prov{{ loop.index }}" value="{{ p.idp_id }}">
+                        <label for="prov{{ loop.index }}">{{ p.idp_name }}</label>
 {% if p.idp_icon %}
-                        <img src="{{p.idp_icon | mxc_to_http(32, 32)}}"/>
+                        <img src="{{ p.idp_icon | mxc_to_http(32, 32) }}"/>
 {% endif %}
                     </li>
 {% endfor %}

programming_language: HTML
filename: sso_redirect_confirm.html
change_type: ModificationType.MODIFY
diff: @@ -5,10 +5,10 @@
     <title>SSO redirect confirmation</title>
 </head>
     <body>
-        <p>The application at <span style="font-weight:bold">{{ display_url | e }}</span> is requesting full access to your <span style="font-weight:bold">{{ server_name }}</span> Matrix account.</p>
+        <p>The application at <span style="font-weight:bold">{{ display_url }}</span> is requesting full access to your <span style="font-weight:bold">{{ server_name }}</span> Matrix account.</p>
         <p>If you don't recognise this address, you should ignore this and close this tab.</p>
         <p>
-            <a href="{{ redirect_url | e }}">I trust this address</a>
+            <a href="{{ redirect_url }}">I trust this address</a>
         </p>
     </body>
-</html>
\ No newline at end of file
+</html>

programming_language: HTML