VDB
KO
HIGH

GHSA-8jgf-23q5-x7xx

ex_aws_sns: Trusted-attacker `SigningCertURL` permits complete SNS signature bypass

Details

### Summary

`ExAws.SNS.verify_message/1` fetches the signing certificate from the `SigningCertURL` field of the incoming SNS message without validating that the URL uses HTTPS or that its host is an AWS-owned SNS certificate domain. An unauthenticated attacker who can POST to any endpoint that calls `verify_message/1` can supply an attacker-controlled `SigningCertURL`, sign a forged SNS message with their own RSA key, and cause the function to return `:ok`, completely bypassing SNS signature verification.

### Details

In `lib/ex_aws/sns.ex` (lines 475–483), `verify_message/1` performs three checks: `validate_message_params/1` (confirms required fields are present), `validate_signature_version/1` (confirms `SignatureVersion == "1"`), then signature verification. The signature step calls `ExAws.SNS.PublicKeyCache.get(message["SigningCertURL"])` and passes the result to `:public_key.verify/4`.

Neither `validate_message_params/1` nor any other step checks that `SigningCertURL` is an HTTPS URL or that the hostname matches the expected pattern (e.g. `sns.<region>.amazonaws.com`). `PublicKeyCache.get/1` in `lib/ex_aws/sns/public_key_cache.ex` fetches whatever URL is provided and caches the certificate. The RSA signature then verifies against the attacker's own public key, and `verify_message/1` returns `:ok`.

### PoC

1. Generate an RSA keypair and host the DER/PEM public certificate at any URL reachable from the target server (e.g. `http://attacker.example/cert.pem`). 2. Build a forged `Notification` payload with an arbitrary `TopicArn` and `Message`, compute the canonical string-to-sign per the SNS spec, and sign it with the attacker private key. 3. Set `SigningCertURL` to the attacker URL and `Signature` to the base64-encoded signature. 4. POST the forged payload to any SNS webhook endpoint that calls `ExAws.SNS.verify_message/1`. 5. The function returns `:ok`; the application treats the message as authentic.

### Configurations

The application must expose an HTTP endpoint that calls `ExAws.SNS.verify_message/1` on incoming request bodies (the standard SNS webhook pattern).

### Impact

Complete SNS signature authentication bypass. Affects `ex_aws_sns` from 2.0.1 through 2.3.4. Consequences include spoofing arbitrary `Notification` payloads, auto-confirming attacker-controlled `SubscribeURL` values to hijack topic delivery, and spoofing `UnsubscribeConfirmation` to disrupt legitimate subscriptions. No authentication or special configuration on the attacker side is required. CVSS v4.0: **8.7 (HIGH)**.

## Resources

* Introduction commit: https://github.com/ex-aws/ex_aws_sns/commit/a7ec21880943f4dac1d59bda557db0ffcd2b61fa * Patch commit: https://github.com/ex-aws/ex_aws_sns/commit/1853d280b152d10384a1e21a22cf22152a60be48

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Affected packages

Hex / ex_aws_sns
Introduced in: 2.0.1 Fixed in: 2.3.5
Fix mix deps.update ex_aws_sns

References