CVE-2026-42553: Cinny vulnerable to access token disclosure via invalidated emoji pack avatar URL in service worker
A remote authenticated attacker who shares a room with a victim and has permissions to create room emotes (for example in a DM) can cause the victim’s client to send their Matrix access token to an attacker-controlled server. This occurs when the victim opens the emoji or sticker picker for the room containing a malicious emote pack.
The root causes are:
(1) an incorrect fallback in EmojiBoard that uses untrusted pack.meta.avatar (user-controlled) without converting/validating it as an MXC URL, allowing arbitrary HTTP(S) URLs to be used; and
(2) the service worker attaching the user’s Authorization bearer token to all outbound GET requests whose URL contains /_matrix/client/v1/media/download or /_matrix/client/v1/media/thumbnail without verifying the request host matches the configured homeserver origin. An attacker-controlled URL containing those path fragments and permissive CORS will receive the victim’s Authorization header (access token).
Impacted users: anybody using affected Cinny web app versions who opens the emoji/sticker picker in a room containing a malicious emote pack and who is logged in (authenticated).
References
Code Behaviors & Features
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