Fix joining rooms you have been unbanned from (#15323)

* Fix joining rooms you have been unbanned from

Since forever synapse did not allow you to join a room after you have
been unbanned from it over federation. This was not actually because of
the unban event not federating. Synapse simply used outdated state to
validate the join transition. This skips the validation if we are not in
the room and for that reason won't have the current room state.

Fixes #1563

Signed-off-by: Nicolas Werner <nicolas.werner@hotmail.de>

* Add changelog

Signed-off-by: Nicolas Werner <nicolas.werner@hotmail.de>

* Update changelog.d/15323.bugfix

---------

Signed-off-by: Nicolas Werner <nicolas.werner@hotmail.de>

changelog.d/15323.bugfix

@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Fix a long-standing bug preventing users from joining rooms, that they had been unbanned from, over federation. Contributed by Nico.

synapse/handlers/federation_event.py

@@ -583,7 +583,7 @@ async def process_remote_join(
 
             await self._check_event_auth(origin, event, context)
             if context.rejected:
-                raise SynapseError(400, "Join event was rejected")
+                raise SynapseError(403, "Join event was rejected")
 
             # the remote server is responsible for sending our join event to the rest
             # of the federation. Indeed, attempting to do so will result in problems

synapse/handlers/room_member.py

@@ -850,63 +850,68 @@ async def update_membership_locked(
         # `is_partial_state_room` also indicates whether `partial_state_before_join` is
         # partial.
 
-        # TODO: Refactor into dictionary of explicitly allowed transitions
-        # between old and new state, with specific error messages for some
-        # transitions and generic otherwise
-        old_state_id = partial_state_before_join.get(
-            (EventTypes.Member, target.to_string())
-        )
-        if old_state_id:
-            old_state = await self.store.get_event(old_state_id, allow_none=True)
-            old_membership = old_state.content.get("membership") if old_state else None
-            if action == "unban" and old_membership != "ban":
-                raise SynapseError(
-                    403,
-                    "Cannot unban user who was not banned"
-                    " (membership=%s)" % old_membership,
-                    errcode=Codes.BAD_STATE,
-                )
-            if old_membership == "ban" and action not in ["ban", "unban", "leave"]:
-                raise SynapseError(
-                    403,
-                    "Cannot %s user who was banned" % (action,),
-                    errcode=Codes.BAD_STATE,
-                )
-
-            if old_state:
-                same_content = content == old_state.content
-                same_membership = old_membership == effective_membership_state
-                same_sender = requester.user.to_string() == old_state.sender
-                if same_sender and same_membership and same_content:
-                    # duplicate event.
-                    # we know it was persisted, so must have a stream ordering.
-                    assert old_state.internal_metadata.stream_ordering
-                    return (
-                        old_state.event_id,
-                        old_state.internal_metadata.stream_ordering,
-                    )
+        is_host_in_room = await self._is_host_in_room(partial_state_before_join)
 
-            if old_membership in ["ban", "leave"] and action == "kick":
-                raise AuthError(403, "The target user is not in the room")
+        # if we are not in the room, we won't have the current state
+        if is_host_in_room:
+            # TODO: Refactor into dictionary of explicitly allowed transitions
+            # between old and new state, with specific error messages for some
+            # transitions and generic otherwise
+            old_state_id = partial_state_before_join.get(
+                (EventTypes.Member, target.to_string())
+            )
 
-            # we don't allow people to reject invites to the server notice
-            # room, but they can leave it once they are joined.
-            if (
-                old_membership == Membership.INVITE
-                and effective_membership_state == Membership.LEAVE
-            ):
-                is_blocked = await self.store.is_server_notice_room(room_id)
-                if is_blocked:
+            if old_state_id:
+                old_state = await self.store.get_event(old_state_id, allow_none=True)
+                old_membership = (
+                    old_state.content.get("membership") if old_state else None
+                )
+                if action == "unban" and old_membership != "ban":
                     raise SynapseError(
-                        HTTPStatus.FORBIDDEN,
-                        "You cannot reject this invite",
-                        errcode=Codes.CANNOT_LEAVE_SERVER_NOTICE_ROOM,
+                        403,
+                        "Cannot unban user who was not banned"
+                        " (membership=%s)" % old_membership,
+                        errcode=Codes.BAD_STATE,
+                    )
+                if old_membership == "ban" and action not in ["ban", "unban", "leave"]:
+                    raise SynapseError(
+                        403,
+                        "Cannot %s user who was banned" % (action,),
+                        errcode=Codes.BAD_STATE,
                     )
-        else:
-            if action == "kick":
-                raise AuthError(403, "The target user is not in the room")
 
-        is_host_in_room = await self._is_host_in_room(partial_state_before_join)
+                if old_state:
+                    same_content = content == old_state.content
+                    same_membership = old_membership == effective_membership_state
+                    same_sender = requester.user.to_string() == old_state.sender
+                    if same_sender and same_membership and same_content:
+                        # duplicate event.
+                        # we know it was persisted, so must have a stream ordering.
+                        assert old_state.internal_metadata.stream_ordering
+                        return (
+                            old_state.event_id,
+                            old_state.internal_metadata.stream_ordering,
+                        )
+
+                if old_membership in ["ban", "leave"] and action == "kick":
+                    raise AuthError(403, "The target user is not in the room")
+
+                # we don't allow people to reject invites to the server notice
+                # room, but they can leave it once they are joined.
+                if (
+                    old_membership == Membership.INVITE
+                    and effective_membership_state == Membership.LEAVE
+                ):
+                    is_blocked = await self.store.is_server_notice_room(room_id)
+                    if is_blocked:
+                        raise SynapseError(
+                            HTTPStatus.FORBIDDEN,
+                            "You cannot reject this invite",
+                            errcode=Codes.CANNOT_LEAVE_SERVER_NOTICE_ROOM,
+                        )
+            else:
+                if action == "kick":
+                    raise AuthError(403, "The target user is not in the room")
 
         if effective_membership_state == Membership.JOIN:
             if requester.is_guest: