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Information disclosure in SSB-DB

High severity GitHub Reviewed Published Jun 11, 2020 in ssbc/ssb-db • Updated Jan 9, 2023

Package

npm ssb-db (npm)

Affected versions

= 20.0.0

Patched versions

20.0.1

Description

Impact

What kind of vulnerability is it? Who is impacted?

Servers running SSB-DB 20.0.0 (which is packaged with SSB-Server 16.0.0) must upgrade immediately.

There is no evidence that other SSB apps are vulnerable or that this problem has been exploited in the wild.

The get() method is supposed to only decrypt messages when you explicitly ask it to, but there's a bug where it's decrypting any message that it can. This means that it's returning the decrypted content of private messages, which a malicious peer could use to get access to private data. This only affects peers running SSB-DB@20.0.0 who also have private messages, and is only known to be exploitable if you're also running SSB-OOO (default in SSB-Server), which exposes a thin wrapper around get() to anonymous peers.

Patches

Has the problem been patched? What versions should users upgrade to?

Yes, please upgrade to SSB-DB 20.0.1 (or SSB-Server 16.0.1) immediately.

Workarounds

Is there a way for users to fix or remediate the vulnerability without upgrading?

You may be able to disable the most obvious attack vector, SSB-OOO, by disabling the plugin, but you should upgrade immediately anyway.

For more information

If you have any questions or comments about this advisory, open an issue in SSB-DB

References

@christianbundy christianbundy published to ssbc/ssb-db Jun 11, 2020
Reviewed Jun 11, 2020
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Jun 11, 2020
Last updated Jan 9, 2023

Severity

High

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
None
Availability
None

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N

EPSS score

0.150%
(52nd percentile)

Weaknesses

CVE ID

CVE-2020-4045

GHSA ID

GHSA-mpgr-2cx9-327h

Source code

No known source code

Credits

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