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attack-surface.md

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Attack Surface Analysis for monicahq/monica

Attack Surface: Contact Data Input and Processing (Broad)

  • Description: The core functionality of Monica involves storing and managing extensive personal information about contacts. This creates a large attack surface due to the variety of input fields and data types.
    • Monica's Contribution: Monica's design centers around user-provided data, including custom fields, notes, relationships, and potentially file uploads, significantly expanding the input space.
    • Example: An attacker uploads a malicious .php file disguised as a .jpg profile picture, or injects a specially crafted string into a custom field designed to trigger a buffer overflow in a data processing library. Another example is injecting malicious code into the "Notes" field that exploits a vulnerability in the Markdown parser.
    • Impact: Data breaches (exposure of sensitive personal information), code execution on the server, denial-of-service, data corruption, privilege escalation.
    • Risk Severity: Critical (due to the sensitivity of the data and the potential for complete system compromise).
    • Mitigation Strategies:
      • Input Validation (Comprehensive): Implement strict input validation for all fields, including custom fields. Use whitelisting (allowing only known-good characters and formats) rather than blacklisting. Validate data types, lengths, and formats rigorously.
      • Output Encoding: Properly encode all user-provided data when displaying it in the web interface to prevent XSS. Use context-aware encoding.
      • Secure File Handling: If file uploads are allowed:
        • Strict File Type Validation: Validate file types based on content, not just file extensions. Use a library like fileinfo in PHP.
        • File Content Scanning: Scan uploaded files for malware.
        • Secure Storage: Store uploaded files outside the web root and with restricted permissions.
        • Filename Sanitization: Sanitize filenames to prevent path traversal attacks. Consider generating unique, random filenames.
        • Size Limits: Enforce strict file size limits.
      • Markdown Sanitization: Use a well-vetted and actively maintained Markdown parsing library with robust security features. Configure it to disable potentially dangerous features (e.g., inline HTML).
      • Import Sanitization: Thoroughly sanitize and validate data imported from external sources (CSV, vCard, etc.).
      • Regular Expression Security: If using regular expressions for validation, ensure they are carefully crafted to avoid ReDoS.
      • Limit Custom Fields: Consider limiting the number and types of custom fields.

Attack Surface: API Endpoints (If Exposed)

  • Description: API endpoints provide a direct interface for interacting with Monica's data and functionality.
    • Monica's Contribution: Monica's API allows programmatic access to its core features.
    • Example: An attacker uses a leaked API key to access and exfiltrate all contact data, or injects malicious data through API calls.
    • Impact: Data breaches, unauthorized data modification, denial-of-service, account takeover.
    • Risk Severity: Critical (if the API is publicly accessible and not properly secured).
    • Mitigation Strategies:
      • Strong Authentication: Implement robust authentication mechanisms (e.g., OAuth 2.0, API keys with strong generation and storage). Do not use basic authentication.
      • Authorization (Fine-Grained): Implement fine-grained authorization (RBAC).
      • Rate Limiting: Implement rate limiting on all API endpoints.
      • Input Validation (API-Specific): Apply rigorous input validation to all data received through API calls.
      • Output Encoding (API): Encode data returned by the API appropriately.
      • API Documentation Security: Restrict access to the documentation or ensure it doesn't reveal sensitive information.
      • Regular Security Audits: Conduct regular security audits and penetration testing.

Attack Surface: Reminders and Notifications

  • Description: The reminder and notification system involves scheduling tasks and potentially sending external communications.
    • Monica's Contribution: Monica's reminder feature introduces the complexity of scheduling and potentially interacting with external notification services.
    • Example: An attacker crafts a malicious reminder with a complex recurrence rule that causes denial-of-service. An attacker injects malicious content into a reminder notification.
    • Impact: Denial-of-service, spamming, potential exploitation of vulnerabilities in notification services or client applications.
    • Risk Severity: High
    • Mitigation Strategies:
      • Recurrence Rule Validation: Strictly validate recurrence rules. Limit the number of reminders.
      • Notification Content Sanitization: Sanitize all content included in notifications.
      • Secure Notification Channels: Use secure protocols (e.g., TLS/SSL) for sending notifications.
      • Rate Limiting (Notifications): Implement rate limiting.
      • Sender Verification: If sending emails, implement SPF, DKIM, and DMARC.

Attack Surface: .env File and Configuration

  • Description: The .env file contains sensitive configuration settings.
    • Monica's Contribution: Monica relies on a .env file for configuration.
    • Example: An attacker gains access to the web server and reads the .env file.
    • Impact: Complete system compromise, data breaches, unauthorized access.
    • Risk Severity: Critical
    • Mitigation Strategies:
      • Web Server Configuration: Configure the web server to deny access to the .env file.
      • File Permissions: Set restrictive file permissions on the .env file (e.g., 600).
      • Never Commit to Version Control: Add .env to .gitignore.
      • Environment Variables: Consider using system environment variables.
      • Secrets Management: Consider using a dedicated secrets management solution.