Restrict media usage to owners

In Mastodon media can only be used by owners and only be associated with
a single post. We currently allow media to be associated with several
posts and until now did not limit their usage in posts to media owners.
However, media update and GET lookup was already limited to owners.
(In accordance with allowing media reuse, we also still allow GET
lookups of media already used in a post unlike Mastodon)

Allowing reuse isn’t problematic per se, but allowing use by non-owners
can be problematic if media ids of private-scoped posts can be guessed
since creating a new post with this media id will reveal the uploaded
file content and alt text.
Given media ids are currently just part of a sequentieal series shared
with some other objects, guessing media ids is with some persistence
indeed feasible.

E.g. sampline some public media ids from a real-world
instance with 112 total and 61 monthly-active users:

  17.465.096  at  t0
  17.472.673  at  t1 = t0 + 4h
  17.473.248  at  t2 = t1 + 20min

This gives about 30 new ids per minute of which most won't be
local media but remote and local posts, poll answers etc.
Assuming the default ratelimit of 15 post actions per 10s, scraping all
media for the 4h interval takes about 84 minutes and scraping the 20min
range mere 6.3 minutes. (Until the preceding commit, post updates were
not rate limited at all, allowing even faster scraping.)
If an attacker can infer (e.g. via reply to a follower-only post not
accessbile to the attacker) some sensitive information was uploaded
during a specific time interval and has some pointers regarding the
nature of the information, identifying the specific upload out of all
scraped media for this timerange is not impossible.

Thus restrict media usage to owners.

Checking ownership just in ActivitDraft would already be sufficient,
since when a scheduled status actually gets posted it goes through
ActivityDraft again, but would erroneously return a success status
when scheduling an illegal post.

Independently discovered and fixed by mint in Pleroma
1afde067b1

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -6,6 +6,9 @@ The format is based on [Keep a Changelog](https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.0.0/).
 
 ## Unreleased
 
+## Fixed
+- Issue allowing non-owners to use media objects in posts
+
 ## 2024.04
 
 ## Added

lib/pleroma/scheduled_activity.ex

@@ -40,19 +40,29 @@ defmodule Pleroma.ScheduledActivity do
          %{changes: %{params: %{"media_ids" => media_ids} = params}} = changeset
        )
        when is_list(media_ids) do
-    media_attachments = Utils.attachments_from_ids(%{media_ids: media_ids})
+    user = User.get_by_id(changeset.data.user_id)
 
+    case Utils.attachments_from_ids(user, %{media_ids: media_ids}) do
+      media_attachments when is_list(media_attachments) ->
         params =
           params
           |> Map.put("media_attachments", media_attachments)
           |> Map.put("media_ids", media_ids)
 
         put_change(changeset, :params, params)
+
+      {:error, _} = e ->
+        e
+
+      e ->
+        {:error, e}
+    end
   end
 
   defp with_media_attachments(changeset), do: changeset
 
   defp update_changeset(%ScheduledActivity{} = scheduled_activity, attrs) do
+    # note: should this ever allow swapping media attachments, make sure ownership is checked
     scheduled_activity
     |> cast(attrs, [:scheduled_at])
     |> validate_required([:scheduled_at])
@@ -115,13 +125,22 @@ defmodule Pleroma.ScheduledActivity do
   @doc """
   Creates ScheduledActivity and add to queue to perform at scheduled_at date
   """
-  @spec create(User.t(), map()) :: {:ok, ScheduledActivity.t()} | {:error, Ecto.Changeset.t()}
+  @spec create(User.t(), map()) :: {:ok, ScheduledActivity.t()} | {:error, any()}
   def create(%User{} = user, attrs) do
+    case new(user, attrs) do
+      %Ecto.Changeset{} = sched_data ->
         Multi.new()
-    |> Multi.insert(:scheduled_activity, new(user, attrs))
+        |> Multi.insert(:scheduled_activity, sched_data)
         |> maybe_add_jobs(Config.get([ScheduledActivity, :enabled]))
         |> Repo.transaction()
         |> transaction_response
+
+      {:error, _} = e ->
+        e
+
+      e ->
+        {:error, e}
+    end
   end
 
   defp maybe_add_jobs(multi, true) do

lib/pleroma/web/common_api/activity_draft.ex

@@ -92,9 +92,14 @@ defmodule Pleroma.Web.CommonAPI.ActivityDraft do
     end
   end
 
-  defp attachments(%{params: params} = draft) do
+  defp attachments(%{params: params, user: user} = draft) do
-    attachments = Utils.attachments_from_ids(params)
+    case Utils.attachments_from_ids(user, params) do
+      attachments when is_list(attachments) ->
         %__MODULE__{draft | attachments: attachments}
+
+      {:error, reason} ->
+        add_error(draft, reason)
+    end
   end
 
   defp in_reply_to(%{params: %{in_reply_to_status_id: ""}} = draft), do: draft

lib/pleroma/web/common_api/utils.ex

@@ -22,23 +22,23 @@ defmodule Pleroma.Web.CommonAPI.Utils do
   require Logger
   require Pleroma.Constants
 
-  def attachments_from_ids(%{media_ids: ids}) do
+  def attachments_from_ids(user, %{media_ids: ids}) do
-    attachments_from_ids(ids)
+    attachments_from_ids(user, ids, [])
   end
 
-  def attachments_from_ids([]), do: []
+  def attachments_from_ids(_, _), do: []
 
-  def attachments_from_ids(ids) when is_list(ids) do
+  defp attachments_from_ids(_user, [], acc), do: Enum.reverse(acc)
-    Enum.map(ids, fn media_id ->
-      case get_attachment(media_id) do
-        %Object{data: data} -> data
-        _ -> nil
-      end
-    end)
-    |> Enum.reject(&is_nil/1)
-  end
 
-  def attachments_from_ids(_), do: []
+  defp attachments_from_ids(user, [media_id | ids], acc) do
+    with {_, %Object{} = object} <- {:get, get_attachment(media_id)},
+         :ok <- Object.authorize_access(object, user) do
+      attachments_from_ids(user, ids, [object.data | acc])
+    else
+      {:get, _} -> attachments_from_ids(user, ids, acc)
+      {:error, reason} -> {:error, reason}
+    end
+  end
 
   defp get_attachment(media_id) do
     Repo.get(Object, media_id)

test/pleroma/web/common_api/utils_test.exs

@@ -592,12 +592,14 @@ defmodule Pleroma.Web.CommonAPI.UtilsTest do
 
   describe "attachments_from_ids/1" do
     test "returns attachments without descs" do
-      object = insert(:note)
+      user = insert(:user)
-      assert Utils.attachments_from_ids(%{media_ids: ["#{object.id}"]}) == [object.data]
+      object = insert(:note, user: user)
+      assert Utils.attachments_from_ids(user, %{media_ids: ["#{object.id}"]}) == [object.data]
     end
 
     test "returns [] when not pass media_ids" do
-      assert Utils.attachments_from_ids(%{}) == []
+      user = insert(:user)
+      assert Utils.attachments_from_ids(user, %{}) == []
     end
   end
 

test/pleroma/web/mastodon_api/controllers/status_controller_test.exs

@@ -220,6 +220,28 @@ defmodule Pleroma.Web.MastodonAPI.StatusControllerTest do
       assert json_response_and_validate_schema(conn, 200)
     end
 
+    test "refuses to post non-owned media", %{conn: conn} do
+      other_user = insert(:user)
+
+      file = %Plug.Upload{
+        content_type: "image/jpeg",
+        path: Path.absname("test/fixtures/image.jpg"),
+        filename: "an_image.jpg"
+      }
+
+      {:ok, upload} = ActivityPub.upload(file, actor: other_user.ap_id)
+
+      conn =
+        conn
+        |> put_req_header("content-type", "application/json")
+        |> post("/api/v1/statuses", %{
+          "status" => "mew",
+          "media_ids" => [to_string(upload.id)]
+        })
+
+      assert json_response(conn, 422) == %{"error" => "forbidden"}
+    end
+
     test "posting a status with an invalid language", %{conn: conn} do
       conn =
         conn
@@ -569,6 +591,29 @@ defmodule Pleroma.Web.MastodonAPI.StatusControllerTest do
       assert %{"type" => "image"} = media_attachment
     end
 
+    test "refuses to schedule post with non-owned media", %{conn: conn} do
+      other_user = insert(:user)
+
+      file = %Plug.Upload{
+        content_type: "image/jpeg",
+        path: Path.absname("test/fixtures/image.jpg"),
+        filename: "an_image.jpg"
+      }
+
+      {:ok, upload} = ActivityPub.upload(file, actor: other_user.ap_id)
+
+      conn =
+        conn
+        |> put_req_header("content-type", "application/json")
+        |> post("/api/v1/statuses", %{
+          "status" => "mew",
+          "scheduled_at" => DateTime.add(DateTime.utc_now(), 6, :minute),
+          "media_ids" => [to_string(upload.id)]
+        })
+
+      assert json_response(conn, 403) == %{"error" => "Access denied"}
+    end
+
     test "skips the scheduling and creates the activity if scheduled_at is earlier than 5 minutes from now",
          %{conn: conn} do
       scheduled_at =
@@ -2406,6 +2451,25 @@ defmodule Pleroma.Web.MastodonAPI.StatusControllerTest do
       assert [%{"id" => ^attachment_id}] = response["media_attachments"]
     end
 
+    test "it does not update to non-owned attachments", %{conn: conn, user: user} do
+      other_user = insert(:user)
+      attachment = insert(:attachment, user: other_user)
+      attachment_id = to_string(attachment.id)
+
+      {:ok, activity} = CommonAPI.post(user, %{status: "mew mew #abc", spoiler_text: "#def"})
+
+      conn =
+        conn
+        |> put_req_header("content-type", "application/json")
+        |> put("/api/v1/statuses/#{activity.id}", %{
+          "status" => "mew mew #abc",
+          "spoiler_text" => "#def",
+          "media_ids" => [attachment_id]
+        })
+
+      assert json_response(conn, 400) == %{"error" => "internal_server_error"}
+    end
+
     test "it does not update visibility", %{conn: conn, user: user} do
       {:ok, activity} =
         CommonAPI.post(user, %{

test/pleroma/web/mastodon_api/views/scheduled_activity_view_test.exs

@@ -47,8 +47,7 @@ defmodule Pleroma.Web.MastodonAPI.ScheduledActivityViewTest do
     expected = %{
       id: to_string(scheduled_activity.id),
       media_attachments:
-        %{media_ids: [upload.id]}
+        Utils.attachments_from_ids(user, %{media_ids: [upload.id]})
-        |> Utils.attachments_from_ids()
         |> Enum.map(&StatusView.render("attachment.json", %{attachment: &1})),
       params: %{
         in_reply_to_id: to_string(activity.id),