CVE-2022-39251: Matrix js sdk Matrix-js-sdk Subject To User Spoofing Vulnerability

{
  "schema_version" : "1.4.0",
  "id" : "GHSA-r48r-j8fx-mq2c",
  "modified" : "2022-10-03T19:46:42Z",
  "published" : "2022-09-30T00:41:24Z",
  "aliases" : [ "CVE-2022-39251" ],
  "summary" : "matrix-js-sdk subject to user spoofing via Olm/Megolm protocol confusion",
  "details" : "### Impact\n\nAn attacker cooperating with a malicious homeserver can construct messages that legitimately appear to have come from another person, without any indication such as a grey shield.\n\nAdditionally, a sophisticated attacker cooperating with a malicious homeserver could employ this vulnerability to perform a targeted attack in order to send fake to-device messages appearing to originate from another user. This can allow, for example, to inject the key backup secret during a self-verification, to make a targeted device start using a malicious key backup spoofed by the homeserver.\n\nThese attacks are possible due to a protocol confusion vulnerability that accepts to-device messages encrypted with Megolm instead of Olm.\n\n### Patches\n\nmatrix-js-sdk has been modified to only accept Olm-encrypted to-device messages.\n\nOut of caution, several other checks have been audited or added:\n- Cleartext `m.room_key`, `m.forwarded_room_key` and `m.secret.send` to_device messages are discarded.\n- Secrets received from untrusted devices are discarded.\n- Key backups are only usable if they have a valid signature from a trusted device (no more local trust, or trust-on-decrypt).\n- The origin of a to-device message should only be determined by observing the Olm session which managed to decrypt the message, and not by using claimed sender_key, user_id, or any other fields controllable by the homeserver.\n\n### Workarounds\n\nAs this attack requires coordination between a malicious home server and an attacker, if you trust your home server no particular workaround is needed. Notice that the backup spoofing attack is a particularly sophisticated targeted attack.\n\nWe are not aware of this attack being used in the wild, though specifying a false positive-free way of noticing malicious key backups key is challenging.\n\nAs an abundance of caution, to avoid malicious backup attacks, you should not verify your new logins using emoji/QR verifications methods until patched. Prefer verifying with your security passphrase instead.\n\n### References\nBlog post: https://matrix.org/blog/2022/09/28/upgrade-now-to-address-encryption-vulns-in-matrix-sdks-and-clients\n\n### For more information\nIf you have any questions or comments about this advisory, e-mail us at [security@matrix.org](mailto:security@matrix.org).\n",
  "severity" : [ {
    "type" : "CVSS_V3",
    "score" : "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:H/A:N"
  } ],
  "affected" : [ {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "npm",
      "name" : "matrix-js-sdk"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "19.7.0"
      } ]
    } ]
  } ],
  "references" : [ {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-js-sdk/security/advisories/GHSA-r48r-j8fx-mq2c"
  }, {
    "type" : "ADVISORY",
    "url" : "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-39251"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-js-sdk/commit/a587d7c36026fe1fcf93dfff63588abee359be76"
  }, {
    "type" : "PACKAGE",
    "url" : "https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-js-sdk"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-js-sdk/releases/tag/v19.7.0"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://matrix.org/blog/2022/09/28/upgrade-now-to-address-encryption-vulns-in-matrix-sdks-and-clients"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202210-35"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-287", "CWE-322" ],
    "severity" : "HIGH",
    "github_reviewed" : true,
    "github_reviewed_at" : "2022-09-30T00:41:24Z",
    "nvd_published_at" : "2022-09-28T20:15:00Z"
  }
}