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bpo-45001: Make email date parsing more robust against malformed input#27946

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ambv merged 2 commits intopython:mainfrom
wbolster:bpo45001-date-email-parsing-robustness
Aug 26, 2021
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bpo-45001: Make email date parsing more robust against malformed input#27946
ambv merged 2 commits intopython:mainfrom
wbolster:bpo45001-date-email-parsing-robustness

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@wbolster
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@wbolster wbolster commented Aug 25, 2021 •
edited by bedevere-bot
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See https://bugs.python.org/issue45001

Various date parsing utilities in the email module, such as
email.utils.parsedate(), are supposed to gracefully handle invalid
input, typically by raising an appropriate exception or by returning
None.

The internal email._parseaddr._parsedate_tz() helper used by some of
these date parsing routines tries to be robust against malformed input,
but unfortunately it can still crash ungracefully when a non-empty but
whitespace-only input is passed. This manifests as an unexpected
IndexError.

In practice, this can happen when parsing an email with only a newline
inside a ‘Date:’ header, which unfortunately happens occasionally in the
real world.

Here's a minimal example:

$ python
Python 3.9.6 (default, Jun 30 2021, 10:22:16)
[GCC 11.1.0] on linux
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import email.utils
>>> email.utils.parsedate('foo')
>>> email.utils.parsedate(' ')
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/usr/lib/python3.9/email/_parseaddr.py", line 176, in parsedate
    t = parsedate_tz(data)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.9/email/_parseaddr.py", line 50, in parsedate_tz
    res = _parsedate_tz(data)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.9/email/_parseaddr.py", line 72, in _parsedate_tz
    if data[0].endswith(',') or data[0].lower() in _daynames:
IndexError: list index out of range

The fix is rather straight-forward: guard against empty lists, after
splitting on whitespace, but before accessing the first element.

https://bugs.python.org/issue45001

@wbolster wbolster requested a review from a team as a code owner August 25, 2021 13:27
@wbolster
bpo45001: Make email date parsing more robust against malformed input
d75760c 
See https://bugs.python.org/issue45001

Various date parsing utilities in the email module, such as
email.utils.parsedate(), are supposed to gracefully handle invalid
input, typically by raising an appropriate exception or by returning
None.

The internal email._parseaddr._parsedate_tz() helper used by some of
these date parsing routines tries to be robust against malformed input,
but unfortunately it can still crash ungracefully when a non-empty but
whitespace-only input is passed. This manifests as an unexpected
IndexError.

In practice, this can happen when parsing an email with only a newline
inside a ‘Date:’ header, which unfortunately happens occasionally in the
real world.

Here's a minimal example:

    $ python
    Python 3.9.6 (default, Jun 30 2021, 10:22:16)
    [GCC 11.1.0] on linux
    Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
    >>> import email.utils
    >>> email.utils.parsedate('foo')
    >>> email.utils.parsedate(' ')
    Traceback (most recent call last):
      File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
      File "/usr/lib/python3.9/email/_parseaddr.py", line 176, in parsedate
        t = parsedate_tz(data)
      File "/usr/lib/python3.9/email/_parseaddr.py", line 50, in parsedate_tz
        res = _parsedate_tz(data)
      File "/usr/lib/python3.9/email/_parseaddr.py", line 72, in _parsedate_tz
        if data[0].endswith(',') or data[0].lower() in _daynames:
    IndexError: list index out of range

The fix is rather straight-forward: guard against empty lists, after
splitting on whitespace, but before accessing the first element.
@wbolster wbolster force-pushed the bpo45001-date-email-parsing-robustness branch from 0edbd8d to d75760c Compare August 25, 2021 14:34
@wbolster wbolster changed the title bpo45001: Make email date parsing more robust against malformed input bpo-45001: Make email date parsing more robust against malformed input Aug 25, 2021
@ambv
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ambv commented Aug 26, 2021

Also added backport to 3.8 since passing invalid headers via e-mail can lead to DoS here.

@wbolster
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wbolster commented Aug 26, 2021

Also added backport to 3.8 since passing invalid headers via e-mail can lead to DoS here.

a denial of service is exactly what can happen indeed. practically speaking, the widely used imapclient indirectly calls this code, and as a result it unexpectedly crashes when listing mailbox contents if such a message is encountered.

@ambv ambv merged commit 989f6a3 into python:main Aug 26, 2021
@miss-islington
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miss-islington commented Aug 26, 2021

Thanks @wbolster for the PR, and @ambv for merging it 🌮🎉.. I'm working now to backport this PR to: 3.6, 3.7, 3.8, 3.9, 3.10.
🐍🍒⛏🤖

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bedevere-bot commented Aug 26, 2021

GH-27972 is a backport of this pull request to the 3.10 branch.

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bedevere-bot commented Aug 26, 2021

GH-27973 is a backport of this pull request to the 3.9 branch.

miss-islington pushed a commit to miss-islington/cpython that referenced this pull request Aug 26, 2021
@wbolster @miss-islington
bpo-45001: Make email date parsing more robust against malformed input (
47f9dc2 
pythonGH-27946)

Various date parsing utilities in the email module, such as
email.utils.parsedate(), are supposed to gracefully handle invalid
input, typically by raising an appropriate exception or by returning
None.

The internal email._parseaddr._parsedate_tz() helper used by some of
these date parsing routines tries to be robust against malformed input,
but unfortunately it can still crash ungracefully when a non-empty but
whitespace-only input is passed. This manifests as an unexpected
IndexError.

In practice, this can happen when parsing an email with only a newline
inside a ‘Date:’ header, which unfortunately happens occasionally in the
real world.

Here's a minimal example:

    $ python
    Python 3.9.6 (default, Jun 30 2021, 10:22:16)
    [GCC 11.1.0] on linux
    Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
    >>> import email.utils
    >>> email.utils.parsedate('foo')
    >>> email.utils.parsedate(' ')
    Traceback (most recent call last):
      File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
      File "/usr/lib/python3.9/email/_parseaddr.py", line 176, in parsedate
        t = parsedate_tz(data)
      File "/usr/lib/python3.9/email/_parseaddr.py", line 50, in parsedate_tz
        res = _parsedate_tz(data)
      File "/usr/lib/python3.9/email/_parseaddr.py", line 72, in _parsedate_tz
        if data[0].endswith(',') or data[0].lower() in _daynames:
    IndexError: list index out of range

The fix is rather straight-forward: guard against empty lists, after
splitting on whitespace, but before accessing the first element.
(cherry picked from commit 989f6a3)

Co-authored-by: wouter bolsterlee <wouter@bolsterl.ee>
miss-islington pushed a commit to miss-islington/cpython that referenced this pull request Aug 26, 2021
@wbolster @miss-islington
bpo-45001: Make email date parsing more robust against malformed input (
b836af9 
pythonGH-27946)

Various date parsing utilities in the email module, such as
email.utils.parsedate(), are supposed to gracefully handle invalid
input, typically by raising an appropriate exception or by returning
None.

The internal email._parseaddr._parsedate_tz() helper used by some of
these date parsing routines tries to be robust against malformed input,
but unfortunately it can still crash ungracefully when a non-empty but
whitespace-only input is passed. This manifests as an unexpected
IndexError.

In practice, this can happen when parsing an email with only a newline
inside a ‘Date:’ header, which unfortunately happens occasionally in the
real world.

Here's a minimal example:

    $ python
    Python 3.9.6 (default, Jun 30 2021, 10:22:16)
    [GCC 11.1.0] on linux
    Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
    >>> import email.utils
    >>> email.utils.parsedate('foo')
    >>> email.utils.parsedate(' ')
    Traceback (most recent call last):
      File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
      File "/usr/lib/python3.9/email/_parseaddr.py", line 176, in parsedate
        t = parsedate_tz(data)
      File "/usr/lib/python3.9/email/_parseaddr.py", line 50, in parsedate_tz
        res = _parsedate_tz(data)
      File "/usr/lib/python3.9/email/_parseaddr.py", line 72, in _parsedate_tz
        if data[0].endswith(',') or data[0].lower() in _daynames:
    IndexError: list index out of range

The fix is rather straight-forward: guard against empty lists, after
splitting on whitespace, but before accessing the first element.
(cherry picked from commit 989f6a3)

Co-authored-by: wouter bolsterlee <wouter@bolsterl.ee>
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bedevere-bot commented Aug 26, 2021

GH-27974 is a backport of this pull request to the 3.8 branch.

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bedevere-bot commented Aug 26, 2021

GH-27975 is a backport of this pull request to the 3.7 branch.

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bedevere-bot commented Aug 26, 2021

GH-27976 is a backport of this pull request to the 3.6 branch.

miss-islington pushed a commit to miss-islington/cpython that referenced this pull request Aug 26, 2021
@wbolster @miss-islington
bpo-45001: Make email date parsing more robust against malformed input (
2f9b52b 
pythonGH-27946)

Various date parsing utilities in the email module, such as
email.utils.parsedate(), are supposed to gracefully handle invalid
input, typically by raising an appropriate exception or by returning
None.

The internal email._parseaddr._parsedate_tz() helper used by some of
these date parsing routines tries to be robust against malformed input,
but unfortunately it can still crash ungracefully when a non-empty but
whitespace-only input is passed. This manifests as an unexpected
IndexError.

In practice, this can happen when parsing an email with only a newline
inside a ‘Date:’ header, which unfortunately happens occasionally in the
real world.

Here's a minimal example:

    $ python
    Python 3.9.6 (default, Jun 30 2021, 10:22:16)
    [GCC 11.1.0] on linux
    Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
    >>> import email.utils
    >>> email.utils.parsedate('foo')
    >>> email.utils.parsedate(' ')
    Traceback (most recent call last):
      File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
      File "/usr/lib/python3.9/email/_parseaddr.py", line 176, in parsedate
        t = parsedate_tz(data)
      File "/usr/lib/python3.9/email/_parseaddr.py", line 50, in parsedate_tz
        res = _parsedate_tz(data)
      File "/usr/lib/python3.9/email/_parseaddr.py", line 72, in _parsedate_tz
        if data[0].endswith(',') or data[0].lower() in _daynames:
    IndexError: list index out of range

The fix is rather straight-forward: guard against empty lists, after
splitting on whitespace, but before accessing the first element.
(cherry picked from commit 989f6a3)

Co-authored-by: wouter bolsterlee <wouter@bolsterl.ee>
miss-islington pushed a commit to miss-islington/cpython that referenced this pull request Aug 26, 2021
@wbolster @miss-islington
bpo-45001: Make email date parsing more robust against malformed input (
3e66263 
pythonGH-27946)

Various date parsing utilities in the email module, such as
email.utils.parsedate(), are supposed to gracefully handle invalid
input, typically by raising an appropriate exception or by returning
None.

The internal email._parseaddr._parsedate_tz() helper used by some of
these date parsing routines tries to be robust against malformed input,
but unfortunately it can still crash ungracefully when a non-empty but
whitespace-only input is passed. This manifests as an unexpected
IndexError.

In practice, this can happen when parsing an email with only a newline
inside a ‘Date:’ header, which unfortunately happens occasionally in the
real world.

Here's a minimal example:

    $ python
    Python 3.9.6 (default, Jun 30 2021, 10:22:16)
    [GCC 11.1.0] on linux
    Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
    >>> import email.utils
    >>> email.utils.parsedate('foo')
    >>> email.utils.parsedate(' ')
    Traceback (most recent call last):
      File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
      File "/usr/lib/python3.9/email/_parseaddr.py", line 176, in parsedate
        t = parsedate_tz(data)
      File "/usr/lib/python3.9/email/_parseaddr.py", line 50, in parsedate_tz
        res = _parsedate_tz(data)
      File "/usr/lib/python3.9/email/_parseaddr.py", line 72, in _parsedate_tz
        if data[0].endswith(',') or data[0].lower() in _daynames:
    IndexError: list index out of range

The fix is rather straight-forward: guard against empty lists, after
splitting on whitespace, but before accessing the first element.
(cherry picked from commit 989f6a3)

Co-authored-by: wouter bolsterlee <wouter@bolsterl.ee>
@wbolster wbolster deleted the bpo45001-date-email-parsing-robustness branch August 26, 2021 15:03
miss-islington added a commit that referenced this pull request Aug 26, 2021
@miss-islington @wbolster
bpo-45001: Make email date parsing more robust against malformed input (
9a79242 
GH-27946)

Various date parsing utilities in the email module, such as
email.utils.parsedate(), are supposed to gracefully handle invalid
input, typically by raising an appropriate exception or by returning
None.

The internal email._parseaddr._parsedate_tz() helper used by some of
these date parsing routines tries to be robust against malformed input,
but unfortunately it can still crash ungracefully when a non-empty but
whitespace-only input is passed. This manifests as an unexpected
IndexError.

In practice, this can happen when parsing an email with only a newline
inside a ‘Date:’ header, which unfortunately happens occasionally in the
real world.

Here's a minimal example:

    $ python
    Python 3.9.6 (default, Jun 30 2021, 10:22:16)
    [GCC 11.1.0] on linux
    Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
    >>> import email.utils
    >>> email.utils.parsedate('foo')
    >>> email.utils.parsedate(' ')
    Traceback (most recent call last):
      File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
      File "/usr/lib/python3.9/email/_parseaddr.py", line 176, in parsedate
        t = parsedate_tz(data)
      File "/usr/lib/python3.9/email/_parseaddr.py", line 50, in parsedate_tz
        res = _parsedate_tz(data)
      File "/usr/lib/python3.9/email/_parseaddr.py", line 72, in _parsedate_tz
        if data[0].endswith(',') or data[0].lower() in _daynames:
    IndexError: list index out of range

The fix is rather straight-forward: guard against empty lists, after
splitting on whitespace, but before accessing the first element.
(cherry picked from commit 989f6a3)

Co-authored-by: wouter bolsterlee <wouter@bolsterl.ee>
ambv pushed a commit that referenced this pull request Aug 26, 2021
@miss-islington @wbolster
bpo-45001: Make email date parsing more robust against malformed input (
2cdbd3b 
GH-27946) (GH-27973)

Various date parsing utilities in the email module, such as
email.utils.parsedate(), are supposed to gracefully handle invalid
input, typically by raising an appropriate exception or by returning
None.

The internal email._parseaddr._parsedate_tz() helper used by some of
these date parsing routines tries to be robust against malformed input,
but unfortunately it can still crash ungracefully when a non-empty but
whitespace-only input is passed. This manifests as an unexpected
IndexError.

In practice, this can happen when parsing an email with only a newline
inside a ‘Date:’ header, which unfortunately happens occasionally in the
real world.

Here's a minimal example:

    $ python
    Python 3.9.6 (default, Jun 30 2021, 10:22:16)
    [GCC 11.1.0] on linux
    Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
    >>> import email.utils
    >>> email.utils.parsedate('foo')
    >>> email.utils.parsedate(' ')
    Traceback (most recent call last):
      File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
      File "/usr/lib/python3.9/email/_parseaddr.py", line 176, in parsedate
        t = parsedate_tz(data)
      File "/usr/lib/python3.9/email/_parseaddr.py", line 50, in parsedate_tz
        res = _parsedate_tz(data)
      File "/usr/lib/python3.9/email/_parseaddr.py", line 72, in _parsedate_tz
        if data[0].endswith(',') or data[0].lower() in _daynames:
    IndexError: list index out of range

The fix is rather straight-forward: guard against empty lists, after
splitting on whitespace, but before accessing the first element.
(cherry picked from commit 989f6a3)

Co-authored-by: wouter bolsterlee <wouter@bolsterl.ee>
ambv pushed a commit that referenced this pull request Aug 26, 2021
@miss-islington @wbolster
bpo-45001: Make email date parsing more robust against malformed input (
81148c6 
GH-27946) (GH-27974)

Various date parsing utilities in the email module, such as
email.utils.parsedate(), are supposed to gracefully handle invalid
input, typically by raising an appropriate exception or by returning
None.

The internal email._parseaddr._parsedate_tz() helper used by some of
these date parsing routines tries to be robust against malformed input,
but unfortunately it can still crash ungracefully when a non-empty but
whitespace-only input is passed. This manifests as an unexpected
IndexError.

In practice, this can happen when parsing an email with only a newline
inside a ‘Date:’ header, which unfortunately happens occasionally in the
real world.

Here's a minimal example:

    $ python
    Python 3.9.6 (default, Jun 30 2021, 10:22:16)
    [GCC 11.1.0] on linux
    Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
    >>> import email.utils
    >>> email.utils.parsedate('foo')
    >>> email.utils.parsedate(' ')
    Traceback (most recent call last):
      File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
      File "/usr/lib/python3.9/email/_parseaddr.py", line 176, in parsedate
        t = parsedate_tz(data)
      File "/usr/lib/python3.9/email/_parseaddr.py", line 50, in parsedate_tz
        res = _parsedate_tz(data)
      File "/usr/lib/python3.9/email/_parseaddr.py", line 72, in _parsedate_tz
        if data[0].endswith(',') or data[0].lower() in _daynames:
    IndexError: list index out of range

The fix is rather straight-forward: guard against empty lists, after
splitting on whitespace, but before accessing the first element.
(cherry picked from commit 989f6a3)

Co-authored-by: wouter bolsterlee <wouter@bolsterl.ee>
@wbolster wbolster mentioned this pull request Aug 27, 2021
Merged
ned-deily pushed a commit that referenced this pull request Aug 30, 2021
@miss-islington @wbolster
bpo-45001: Make email date parsing more robust against malformed input (
e9b85af 
GH-27946) (GH-27975)

Various date parsing utilities in the email module, such as
email.utils.parsedate(), are supposed to gracefully handle invalid
input, typically by raising an appropriate exception or by returning
None.

The internal email._parseaddr._parsedate_tz() helper used by some of
these date parsing routines tries to be robust against malformed input,
but unfortunately it can still crash ungracefully when a non-empty but
whitespace-only input is passed. This manifests as an unexpected
IndexError.

In practice, this can happen when parsing an email with only a newline
inside a ‘Date:’ header, which unfortunately happens occasionally in the
real world.

Here's a minimal example:

    $ python
    Python 3.9.6 (default, Jun 30 2021, 10:22:16)
    [GCC 11.1.0] on linux
    Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
    >>> import email.utils
    >>> email.utils.parsedate('foo')
    >>> email.utils.parsedate(' ')
    Traceback (most recent call last):
      File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
      File "/usr/lib/python3.9/email/_parseaddr.py", line 176, in parsedate
        t = parsedate_tz(data)
      File "/usr/lib/python3.9/email/_parseaddr.py", line 50, in parsedate_tz
        res = _parsedate_tz(data)
      File "/usr/lib/python3.9/email/_parseaddr.py", line 72, in _parsedate_tz
        if data[0].endswith(',') or data[0].lower() in _daynames:
    IndexError: list index out of range

The fix is rather straight-forward: guard against empty lists, after
splitting on whitespace, but before accessing the first element.
(cherry picked from commit 989f6a3)

Co-authored-by: wouter bolsterlee <wouter@bolsterl.ee>
ned-deily pushed a commit that referenced this pull request Aug 30, 2021
@miss-islington @wbolster
bpo-45001: Make email date parsing more robust against malformed input (
da9d6c5 
GH-27946) (GH-27976)

Various date parsing utilities in the email module, such as
email.utils.parsedate(), are supposed to gracefully handle invalid
input, typically by raising an appropriate exception or by returning
None.

The internal email._parseaddr._parsedate_tz() helper used by some of
these date parsing routines tries to be robust against malformed input,
but unfortunately it can still crash ungracefully when a non-empty but
whitespace-only input is passed. This manifests as an unexpected
IndexError.

In practice, this can happen when parsing an email with only a newline
inside a ‘Date:’ header, which unfortunately happens occasionally in the
real world.

Here's a minimal example:

    $ python
    Python 3.9.6 (default, Jun 30 2021, 10:22:16)
    [GCC 11.1.0] on linux
    Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
    >>> import email.utils
    >>> email.utils.parsedate('foo')
    >>> email.utils.parsedate(' ')
    Traceback (most recent call last):
      File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
      File "/usr/lib/python3.9/email/_parseaddr.py", line 176, in parsedate
        t = parsedate_tz(data)
      File "/usr/lib/python3.9/email/_parseaddr.py", line 50, in parsedate_tz
        res = _parsedate_tz(data)
      File "/usr/lib/python3.9/email/_parseaddr.py", line 72, in _parsedate_tz
        if data[0].endswith(',') or data[0].lower() in _daynames:
    IndexError: list index out of range

The fix is rather straight-forward: guard against empty lists, after
splitting on whitespace, but before accessing the first element.
(cherry picked from commit 989f6a3)

Co-authored-by: wouter bolsterlee <wouter@bolsterl.ee>
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5 participants

@wbolster @ambv @miss-islington @bedevere-bot @the-knights-who-say-ni