security(email): sanitize body fields against content injection (CodeQL #11, CWE-640)

CodeQL alert #11 (go/email-injection, CWE-640 / OWASP Content Spoofing)
flagged the wc.Write(message) sink at internal/connector/notifier/email/
email.go:208 because attacker-controllable fields flow into the email
body unchecked.

Threat model:
  Headers (From, To, Subject) were already protected by
  validation.ValidateHeaderValue (CWE-113 SMTP header injection,
  closed in commit 3853b74). The remaining gap was the body.
  An attacker controls multiple fields that surface to the body of
  alert/event notifications:
    - alert.Subject, alert.Message
    - event.Subject, event.Body, *event.CertificateID
    - alert.Metadata + event.Metadata key/value pairs
  These can carry CR/LF (forged 'Reply-To: attacker@evil.com' inside
  the body that recipients skim), NUL bytes (RFC 5321 4.5.2 violation
  that some MTAs truncate at), bidi-override Unicode (visually-
  spoofable URLs), zero-width / invisible Unicode (phishing), or
  malformed UTF-8 (Go emits U+FFFD which becomes a glyph in mail
  clients).

  The HTML email path (digest service) already uses html/template
  upstream and is safe via contextual auto-escape. This commit
  closes the plaintext path.

Fix:
  internal/validation/headers.go gains SanitizeEmailBodyValue —
  a sanitizer that NEVER errors (the right contract for body
  content; over-eager rejection drops operator notifications) and
  scrubs:
    - NUL bytes (stripped entirely)
    - bare CR / LF (replaced with space — single fields should never
      carry their own line breaks; the surrounding template handles
      legitimate CRLFs)
    - C0 control chars < 0x20 except TAB
    - DEL (0x7F) + C1 control chars (0x80-0x9F)
    - U+FFFD (defense in depth: malformed UTF-8 -> Go emits this;
      strip so attacker-planted invalid bytes don't survive as an
      arbitrary glyph)
    - Bidi-override Unicode (U+202A..U+202E, U+2066..U+2069)
    - Zero-width / invisible Unicode (U+200B..U+200D, U+2060..U+2063,
      U+FEFF, U+180E)
    - Catch-all unicode.IsControl for anything not enumerated above
  Codepoint table uses numeric ranges rather than rune-literal switch
  cases — Go source rejects literal invisible characters (BOM U+FEFF)
  mid-file, so the table compares against numeric values.

  internal/connector/notifier/email/email.go applies the sanitizer
  at every interpolation site:
    - formatAlertBody: alert.ID/Type/Severity/Subject/Message
      (CreatedAt is time.Time -> RFC3339, structural, not sanitized)
    - formatEventBody: event.ID/Type/Subject/Body, *CertificateID
      (CreatedAt structural, not sanitized)
    - formatMetadata: both keys and values
  The sendEmail / formatEmailMessage call sites continue to validate
  headers (From / To / Subject) via the existing ValidateHeaderValue
  fail-closed gate; the new sanitizer is body-side only.

Tests (internal/validation/headers_test.go):
  TestSanitizeEmailBodyValue_PreservesSafeInput
    Pin: ordinary ASCII, UTF-8 multibyte (résumé / 日本語 / مرحبا),
    tabs, common cert DNs, URLs all flow through unchanged.
  TestSanitizeEmailBodyValue_StripsControlChars
    Table-driven across NUL, bare LF/CR, CRLF, BEL, backspace, DEL,
    C1 (U+0080 / U+009F), U+FFFD, TAB-preserve.
  TestSanitizeEmailBodyValue_StripsBidiOverride
    7 attacker payloads (RLO, LRO, LRI, zero-width space, ZWNJ, BOM,
    MVS) — each must produce a non-identity output.
  TestSanitizeEmailBodyValue_ContentSpoofingScenario
    The CodeQL example case: 'alert\r\nReply-To: attacker@evil.com\r\n
    Click https://evil.example.com/reset' — verify NO CR/LF survives.

Verified locally:
  gofmt: clean.
  go vet ./...: exit 0.
  go test -short -count=1 ./internal/validation/...: ok 0.374s
  go test -short -count=1 ./internal/connector/notifier/email/...: ok 0.186s

Reference: https://github.com/certctl-io/certctl/security/code-scanning/11
Closes CodeQL alert #11 (go/email-injection).
This commit is contained in:
shankar0123
2026-05-04 04:56:13 +00:00
parent e50ba168ac
commit 23c593089d
3 changed files with 297 additions and 4 deletions
+50 -4
View File
@@ -356,6 +356,21 @@ func (c *Connector) formatHTMLEmailMessage(from, to, subject, htmlBody string) (
}
// formatAlertBody formats an alert notification as email body text.
//
// CodeQL go/email-injection (CWE-640 / OWASP Content Spoofing) defense:
// every field interpolated into the body that may carry attacker-
// controlled content (alert.Subject, alert.Message, alert.Metadata
// values, alert.ID / Type / Severity which originate from the API
// surface) is routed through validation.SanitizeEmailBodyValue before
// formatting. The sanitizer strips NUL bytes (RFC 5321 §4.5.2 violation),
// bare CR/LF within a single field (forged header-boundary attempts),
// bidi-override Unicode (visually-spoofable URLs), zero-width / invisible
// codepoints, and C0/C1 control chars. CreatedAt is a time.Time —
// formatted via RFC3339; not user-controllable so unsanitized.
//
// Header values (From, To, Subject) are protected separately by
// validation.ValidateHeaderValue at sendEmail entry (CWE-113 SMTP header
// injection — see commit 9e957c3).
func (c *Connector) formatAlertBody(alert notifier.Alert) string {
body := fmt.Sprintf(`
Certificate Alert Notification
@@ -372,16 +387,29 @@ Message:
%s
%s
`, alert.ID, alert.Type, alert.Severity, alert.CreatedAt.Format(time.RFC3339), alert.Subject, alert.Message, c.formatMetadata(alert.Metadata))
`,
validation.SanitizeEmailBodyValue(alert.ID),
validation.SanitizeEmailBodyValue(alert.Type),
validation.SanitizeEmailBodyValue(alert.Severity),
alert.CreatedAt.Format(time.RFC3339),
validation.SanitizeEmailBodyValue(alert.Subject),
validation.SanitizeEmailBodyValue(alert.Message),
c.formatMetadata(alert.Metadata),
)
return body
}
// formatEventBody formats an event notification as email body text.
//
// Same CodeQL go/email-injection mitigation as formatAlertBody — every
// user-controllable interpolated field routes through
// validation.SanitizeEmailBodyValue. CreatedAt is unsanitized (time.Time
// → RFC3339 is structural, not user-controllable).
func (c *Connector) formatEventBody(event notifier.Event) string {
certInfo := ""
if event.CertificateID != nil {
certInfo = fmt.Sprintf("Certificate ID: %s\n", *event.CertificateID)
certInfo = fmt.Sprintf("Certificate ID: %s\n", validation.SanitizeEmailBodyValue(*event.CertificateID))
}
body := fmt.Sprintf(`
@@ -398,12 +426,27 @@ Body:
%s
%s
`, event.ID, event.Type, event.CreatedAt.Format(time.RFC3339), certInfo, event.Subject, event.Body, c.formatMetadata(event.Metadata))
`,
validation.SanitizeEmailBodyValue(event.ID),
validation.SanitizeEmailBodyValue(event.Type),
event.CreatedAt.Format(time.RFC3339),
certInfo,
validation.SanitizeEmailBodyValue(event.Subject),
validation.SanitizeEmailBodyValue(event.Body),
c.formatMetadata(event.Metadata),
)
return body
}
// formatMetadata formats metadata as a readable string.
//
// Both keys and values can carry attacker-controlled content (cert
// subject DN fragments, discovered cert metadata, owner/team labels —
// all originate from API surfaces an attacker may influence). Both are
// routed through validation.SanitizeEmailBodyValue. Closes the
// CodeQL go/email-injection finding alongside formatAlertBody +
// formatEventBody.
func (c *Connector) formatMetadata(metadata map[string]string) string {
if len(metadata) == 0 {
return ""
@@ -411,7 +454,10 @@ func (c *Connector) formatMetadata(metadata map[string]string) string {
metadataStr := "\nMetadata:\n"
for key, value := range metadata {
metadataStr += fmt.Sprintf(" %s: %s\n", key, value)
metadataStr += fmt.Sprintf(" %s: %s\n",
validation.SanitizeEmailBodyValue(key),
validation.SanitizeEmailBodyValue(value),
)
}
return metadataStr