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Notes on privacy and data collection of Matrix.org

Notes on privacy and data collection of Matrix.org


This version of the document is no longer canonical. You can find the canonical version hosted at Gitlab and Github.

PART 2 IS OUT, INCLUDING THE DISCLOSURE OF A GLOBAL FEDERATION DATA LEAK, AND THE ANATOMY OF A GDPR DATA REQUEST HANDLED BY MATRIX.ORG. SEE THE REPOS ABOVE.

@maxidorius
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maxidorius commented Jun 17, 2019

You are accusing me of "purposefully lying for years" in paragraphs of shouty bold text, while simultaneously acknowledging that I've been promoting mxisd and its capabilities in my talks. (And for that matter we've also been promoting it on matrix.org/blog).

Please don't take my sentence out of context and only reply to it like it was a standalone sentence. I give you the courtesy to not do so, please do the same. My sentence is a reply to your comment, which claims mxisd cannot do those things [1] and shifts the blame on us for not moving Matrix forward.

I have shown proof that:

  • mxisd could do those things [1] for a long time that you claim it can't, and still can do one of them in the current releases.
  • you knew since we told you about it.

[1] "those things" refer to the two restricted actions of your comment #8, quoting:

  • "being contactable(by not publishing your email address to the wider identity db)"
  • "from being able to contact people (because their emails are not published on the wider identity db)"

Even if you refute we told you, you had every chance to check your facts before making such a statement. So yes, I have no problem claiming you are purposefully lying. The question is to what goal. Please do not comment further on this point unless you can prove you did in fact do your background check of mxisd features/source code and that mxisd cannot technically perform lookup on the central IS due to the lack of code for it.

Yup, the bug is still open, and Google STUN is still hooked up as a last resort to help people who have failed to configure their own VoIP servers:

Thanks, we'll incorporate this important info and create a new section about VoIP altogether. Thank you for this useful feedback.
Edit: It's here


I will not reply to the rest of your comments given their personal nature, and their lack of relevance for the document.

[Edit: removed section that was replying to an irrelevant section by mistake, clarify what those things are]

@maxidorius
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maxidorius commented Jul 7, 2019

So after double-checking again, it seems like Comment 38 is not factually correct and that Cloudflare DOES TLS termination, directly having access to all the data in clear.

Here is a Client request done now:

$ curl -sv https://matrix.org/_matrix/client/r0/login
*   Trying 2606:4700:10::6814:15ec...
* TCP_NODELAY set
* Connected to matrix.org (2606:4700:10::6814:15ec) port 443 (#0)
* ALPN, offering h2
* ALPN, offering http/1.1
* successfully set certificate verify locations:
*   CAfile: /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
  CApath: /etc/ssl/certs
* (304) (OUT), TLS handshake, Client hello (1):
* (304) (IN), TLS handshake, Server hello (2):
* (304) (IN), TLS Unknown, Certificate Status (22):
* (304) (IN), TLS handshake, Unknown (8):
* (304) (IN), TLS handshake, Certificate (11):
* (304) (IN), TLS handshake, CERT verify (15):
* (304) (IN), TLS handshake, Finished (20):
* (304) (OUT), TLS change cipher, Client hello (1):
* (304) (OUT), TLS Unknown, Certificate Status (22):
* (304) (OUT), TLS handshake, Finished (20):
* SSL connection using unknown / TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384
* ALPN, server accepted to use h2
* Server certificate:
*  subject: CN=www.matrix.org
*  start date: Jun 11 11:32:44 2019 GMT
*  expire date: Sep  9 11:32:44 2019 GMT
*  subjectAltName: host "matrix.org" matched cert's "matrix.org"
*  issuer: C=US; O=Let's Encrypt; CN=Let's Encrypt Authority X3
*  SSL certificate verify ok.
* Using HTTP2, server supports multi-use
* Connection state changed (HTTP/2 confirmed)
* Copying HTTP/2 data in stream buffer to connection buffer after upgrade: len=0
* (304) (OUT), TLS Unknown, Unknown (23):
* (304) (OUT), TLS Unknown, Unknown (23):
* (304) (OUT), TLS Unknown, Unknown (23):
* Using Stream ID: 1 (easy handle 0x55974db54580)
* (304) (OUT), TLS Unknown, Unknown (23):
> GET /_matrix/client/r0/login HTTP/2
> Host: matrix.org
> User-Agent: curl/7.58.0
> Accept: */*
> 
* (304) (IN), TLS Unknown, Certificate Status (22):
* (304) (IN), TLS handshake, Newsession Ticket (4):
* (304) (IN), TLS handshake, Newsession Ticket (4):
* (304) (IN), TLS Unknown, Unknown (23):
* Connection state changed (MAX_CONCURRENT_STREAMS updated)!
* (304) (OUT), TLS Unknown, Unknown (23):
* (304) (IN), TLS Unknown, Unknown (23):
* (304) (IN), TLS Unknown, Unknown (23):
< HTTP/2 200 
< date: Sun, 07 Jul 2019 09:39:09 GMT
< content-type: application/json
< set-cookie: __cfduid=dc79ff628c73af629e2cb1ccbe2c117be1562492349; expires=Mon, 06-Jul-20 09:39:09 GMT; path=/; domain=.matrix.org; HttpOnly
< cache-control: no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate
< access-control-allow-origin: *
< access-control-allow-methods: GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, OPTIONS
< access-control-allow-headers: Origin, X-Requested-With, Content-Type, Accept, Authorization
< expect-ct: max-age=604800, report-uri="https://report-uri.cloudflare.com/cdn-cgi/beacon/expect-ct"
< server: cloudflare
< cf-ray: 4f28d9820c6bd4b4-BRU
< 
{
    "flows": [
        {
            "type": "m.login.password"
        }
    ]
}
* (304) (IN), TLS Unknown, Unknown (23):
* Connection #0 to host matrix.org left intact

Here is a Federation request done now:

$ curl -sv https://matrix.org:8443/_matrix/federation/v1/version
*   Trying 2606:4700:10::6814:14ec...
* TCP_NODELAY set
* Connected to matrix.org (2606:4700:10::6814:14ec) port 8443 (#0)
* ALPN, offering h2
* ALPN, offering http/1.1
* successfully set certificate verify locations:
*   CAfile: /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
  CApath: /etc/ssl/certs
* (304) (OUT), TLS handshake, Client hello (1):
* (304) (IN), TLS handshake, Server hello (2):
* (304) (IN), TLS Unknown, Certificate Status (22):
* (304) (IN), TLS handshake, Unknown (8):
* (304) (IN), TLS handshake, Certificate (11):
* (304) (IN), TLS handshake, CERT verify (15):
* (304) (IN), TLS handshake, Finished (20):
* (304) (OUT), TLS change cipher, Client hello (1):
* (304) (OUT), TLS Unknown, Certificate Status (22):
* (304) (OUT), TLS handshake, Finished (20):
* SSL connection using unknown / TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384
* ALPN, server accepted to use h2
* Server certificate:
*  subject: CN=www.matrix.org
*  start date: Jun 11 11:32:44 2019 GMT
*  expire date: Sep  9 11:32:44 2019 GMT
*  subjectAltName: host "matrix.org" matched cert's "matrix.org"
*  issuer: C=US; O=Let's Encrypt; CN=Let's Encrypt Authority X3
*  SSL certificate verify ok.
* Using HTTP2, server supports multi-use
* Connection state changed (HTTP/2 confirmed)
* Copying HTTP/2 data in stream buffer to connection buffer after upgrade: len=0
* (304) (OUT), TLS Unknown, Unknown (23):
* (304) (OUT), TLS Unknown, Unknown (23):
* (304) (OUT), TLS Unknown, Unknown (23):
* Using Stream ID: 1 (easy handle 0x56503e398580)
* (304) (OUT), TLS Unknown, Unknown (23):
> GET /_matrix/federation/v1/version HTTP/2
> Host: matrix.org:8443
> User-Agent: curl/7.58.0
> Accept: */*
> 
* (304) (IN), TLS Unknown, Certificate Status (22):
* (304) (IN), TLS handshake, Newsession Ticket (4):
* (304) (IN), TLS handshake, Newsession Ticket (4):
* (304) (IN), TLS Unknown, Unknown (23):
* Connection state changed (MAX_CONCURRENT_STREAMS updated)!
* (304) (OUT), TLS Unknown, Unknown (23):
* (304) (IN), TLS Unknown, Unknown (23):
* (304) (IN), TLS Unknown, Unknown (23):
< HTTP/2 200 
< date: Sun, 07 Jul 2019 09:36:05 GMT
< content-type: application/json
< set-cookie: __cfduid=db97ca0304b4159c2ac95eb7e37e734851562492163; expires=Mon, 06-Jul-20 09:36:03 GMT; path=/; domain=.matrix.org; HttpOnly
< cache-control: no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate
< access-control-allow-origin: *
< access-control-allow-methods: GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, OPTIONS
< access-control-allow-headers: Origin, X-Requested-With, Content-Type, Accept, Authorization
< expect-ct: max-age=604800, report-uri="https://report-uri.cloudflare.com/cdn-cgi/beacon/expect-ct"
< server: cloudflare
< cf-ray: 4f28d4f6fcf5442b-BRU
< 
{
    "server": {
        "name": "Synapse",
        "version": "1.1.0rc1 (b=matrix-org-hotfixes,43e01be15)"
    }
}
* (304) (IN), TLS Unknown, Unknown (23):
* Connection #0 to host matrix.org left intact

Edit: vector.im as an identity server:

$ curl -sv https://vector.im/_matrix/identity/api/v1 | jq
*   Trying 2606:4700:30::681f:475f...
* TCP_NODELAY set
* Connected to vector.im (2606:4700:30::681f:475f) port 443 (#0)
* ALPN, offering h2
* ALPN, offering http/1.1
* successfully set certificate verify locations:
*   CAfile: /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
  CApath: /etc/ssl/certs
} [5 bytes data]
* (304) (OUT), TLS handshake, Client hello (1):
} [512 bytes data]
* (304) (IN), TLS handshake, Server hello (2):
{ [122 bytes data]
* (304) (IN), TLS Unknown, Certificate Status (22):
{ [1 bytes data]
* (304) (IN), TLS handshake, Unknown (8):
{ [15 bytes data]
* (304) (IN), TLS handshake, Certificate (11):
{ [2170 bytes data]
* (304) (IN), TLS handshake, CERT verify (15):
{ [80 bytes data]
* (304) (IN), TLS handshake, Finished (20):
{ [52 bytes data]
* (304) (OUT), TLS change cipher, Client hello (1):
} [1 bytes data]
* (304) (OUT), TLS Unknown, Certificate Status (22):
} [1 bytes data]
* (304) (OUT), TLS handshake, Finished (20):
} [52 bytes data]
* SSL connection using unknown / TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384
* ALPN, server accepted to use h2
* Server certificate:
*  subject: C=US; ST=CA; L=San Francisco; O=CloudFlare, Inc.; CN=vector.im
*  start date: Feb 14 00:00:00 2019 GMT
*  expire date: Feb 14 12:00:00 2020 GMT
*  subjectAltName: host "vector.im" matched cert's "vector.im"
*  issuer: C=US; ST=CA; L=San Francisco; O=CloudFlare, Inc.; CN=CloudFlare Inc ECC CA-2
*  SSL certificate verify ok.
* Using HTTP2, server supports multi-use
* Connection state changed (HTTP/2 confirmed)
* Copying HTTP/2 data in stream buffer to connection buffer after upgrade: len=0
} [5 bytes data]
* (304) (OUT), TLS Unknown, Unknown (23):
} [1 bytes data]
* (304) (OUT), TLS Unknown, Unknown (23):
} [1 bytes data]
* (304) (OUT), TLS Unknown, Unknown (23):
} [1 bytes data]
* Using Stream ID: 1 (easy handle 0x560bab614580)
} [5 bytes data]
* (304) (OUT), TLS Unknown, Unknown (23):
} [1 bytes data]
> GET /_matrix/identity/api/v1 HTTP/2
> Host: vector.im
> User-Agent: curl/7.58.0
> Accept: */*
> 
{ [5 bytes data]
* (304) (IN), TLS Unknown, Certificate Status (22):
{ [1 bytes data]
* (304) (IN), TLS handshake, Newsession Ticket (4):
{ [230 bytes data]
* (304) (IN), TLS handshake, Newsession Ticket (4):
{ [230 bytes data]
* (304) (IN), TLS Unknown, Unknown (23):
{ [1 bytes data]
* Connection state changed (MAX_CONCURRENT_STREAMS updated)!
} [5 bytes data]
* (304) (OUT), TLS Unknown, Unknown (23):
} [1 bytes data]
* (304) (IN), TLS Unknown, Unknown (23):
{ [1 bytes data]
* (304) (IN), TLS Unknown, Unknown (23):
{ [1 bytes data]
< HTTP/2 200 
< date: Sun, 07 Jul 2019 22:57:56 GMT
< content-type: application/json
< set-cookie: __cfduid=d14ef1f6254ebb5c211fdb3493dfabfbf1562540276; expires=Mon, 06-Jul-20 22:57:56 GMT; path=/; domain=.vector.im; HttpOnly
< access-control-allow-methods: GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, OPTIONS
< access-control-allow-origin: *
< access-control-allow-headers: Origin, X-Requested-With, Content-Type, Accept
< expect-ct: max-age=604800, report-uri="https://report-uri.cloudflare.com/cdn-cgi/beacon/expect-ct"
< server: cloudflare
< cf-ray: 4f2d6b993a53d4b4-BRU
< 
{ [2 bytes data]
* (304) (IN), TLS Unknown, Unknown (23):
{ [1 bytes data]
* Connection #0 to host vector.im left intact
{}

In all cases, we can see the headers set-cookie, server, cf-ray and expect-ct with values set by Cloudflare, which would not be possible if TLS termination was done directly on matrix.org/vector.im servers.

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