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OpenAdvisories
High · 8.7 CVE-2024-47080 EUVD-2024-2936GHSA-4jf8-g8wp-cx7c

matrix-js-sdk keys sent via `sendSharedHistoryKeys` vulnerable to interception by malicious homeserver

Published Oct 15, 2024 · Updated Oct 15, 2024 · Assigned by GitHub_M

Description

matrix-js-sdk is the Matrix Client-Server SDK for JavaScript and TypeScript. In matrix-js-sdk versions versions 9.11.0 through 34.7.0, the method `MatrixClient.sendSharedHistoryKeys` is vulnerable to interception by malicious homeservers. The method was introduced by MSC3061) and is commonly used to share historical message keys with newly invited users, granting them access to past messages in the room. However, it unconditionally sends these "shared" keys to all of the invited user's devices, regardless of whether the user's cryptographic identity is verified or whether the user's devices are signed by that identity. This allows the attacker to potentially inject its own devices to receive sensitive historical keys without proper security checks. Note that this only affects clients running the SDK with the legacy crypto stack. Clients using the new Rust cryptography stack (i.e. those that call `MatrixClient.initRustCrypto()` instead of `MatrixClient.initCrypto()`) are unaffected by this vulnerability, because `MatrixClient.sendSharedHistoryKeys()` raises an exception in such environments. The vulnerability was fixed in matrix-js-sdk 34.8.0 by removing the vulnerable functionality. As a workaround, remove use of affected functionality from clients.

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
matrix-org matrix-js-sdk >= 9.11.0, < 34.8.0 —

Fixed in Linux distributions

Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian 11 node-matrix-js-sdk No fix yet —
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS node-matrix-js-sdk No fix yet —
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS node-matrix-js-sdk No fix yet —
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS node-matrix-js-sdk No fix yet —

Affected packages

EcosystemPackageAffectedFixedRecord
npm matrix-js-sdk >= 9.11.0, < 34.8.0 34.8.0 GHSA-4jf8-g8wp-cx7c

References