Multiple mXSS found in snappymail HTML parser

Summary

Snappymail is an open source web-based email client. SnappyMail uses the `cleanHtml()` function to cleanup HTML and CSS in emails. Research discovered that the function has a few bugs which cause an mXSS exploit. Because the function allowed too many (invalid) HTML elements, it was possible (with incorrect markup) to trick the browser to "fix" the broken markup into valid markup. As a result a motivated attacker may be able to inject javascript. However, due to the default Content Security Policy the impact of the exploit is minimal. It could be possible to create an attack which leaks some data when loading images through the proxy. This way it might be possible to use the proxy to attack the local system, like with `http://localhost:5000/leak`. Another attack could be to load a JavaScript attachment of the email. This is very tricky as the email must link to every possible UID as each email has a unique UID which has a value between 1 and 18446744073709551615 v2.38.0 and up now remove unsupported HTML elements which mitigates the issue. Users are advised to upgrade. Older versions can install an extension named "Security mXSS" as a mitigation. This will be available at the administration area at `/?admin#/packages`. NOTE: this extension can not "fix" malicious code in encrypted messages or (html) attachments as it can't manipulate the JavaScript code for this. It only protects normal message HTML.

Timeline

1. Sep 16, 2024, 7:35 PM UTCCVE published
2. Sep 16, 2024, 7:55 PM UTCCISA SSVC assessment

   Exploitation: none · Automatable: no · Technical impact: partial

3. Sep 16, 2024, 7:56 PM UTCRecord last updated

Affected versions

• the-djmaze snappymail

  fixed in 2.38.0

References 3