MSC3173: Expose stripped state events to any potential joiner

proposals/3173-expose-stripped-state-events.md

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+# MSC3173: Expose stripped state events to any potential joiner
+
+It is currently possible to inspect the state of rooms in some circumstances:
+
+* If the room has `history_visibility: world_readable`, then anyone can inspect it (by calling `/state` on it).
+* Rooms in the room directory expose some of their state publicly.
+* [Invited users](https://matrix.org/docs/spec/server_server/r0.1.4#put-matrix-federation-v2-invite-roomid-eventid) (and [knocking users](https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-doc/pull/2403)) receive stripped state events.
+
+This MSC proposes exposing the stripped state events that are currently available
+to invited and knocking users to any user who could potentially join a room. It
+also consolidates the recommendation on which states events are available to
+potential joiners.
+
+## Background
+
+When creating an invite it is [currently recommended](https://matrix.org/docs/spec/server_server/r0.1.4#put-matrix-federation-v2-invite-roomid-eventid)
+to include stripped state events which are useful for displaying the invite to a user:
+
+> An optional list of simplified events to help the receiver of the invite identify
+> the room. The recommended events to include are the join rules, canonical alias,
+> avatar, and name of the room.
+
+The invited user receives these [stripped state events](https://spec.matrix.org/unstable/client-server-api/#get_matrixclientr0sync)
+as part of the `/sync` response:
+
+> The state of a room that the user has been invited to. These state events may
+> only have the `sender`, `type`, `state_key` and `content` keys present. These
+> events do not replace any state that the client already has for the room, for
+> example if the client has archived the room.
+
+These are sent as part of the [`unsigned` content of the `m.room.member` event](https://spec.matrix.org/unstable/client-server-api/#mroommember)
+containing the invite.
+
+[MSC2403: Add "knock" feature](https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-doc/pull/2403)
+extends this concept to also include the stripped state events in the `/sync` response
+for knocking users:
+
+> It is proposed to add a fourth possible key to rooms, called `knock`. Its value
+> is a mapping from room ID to room information. The room information is a mapping
+> from a key `knock_state` to another mapping with key events being a list of
+> `StrippedStateEvent`.
+
+It is also provides an extended rationale of why this is useful:
+
+> These stripped state events contain information about the room, most notably the
+> room's name and avatar. A client will need this information to show a nice 
+> representation of pending knocked rooms. The recommended events to include are the
+> join rules, canonical alias, avatar, name and encryption state of the room, rather
+> than all room state. This behaviour matches the information sent to remote
+> homeservers when remote users are invited to a room.
+
+[MSC1772: Spaces](https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-doc/pull/1772) additionally
+recommends including the `m.room.create` event as one of the stripped state events:
+
+> Join rules, invites and 3PID invites work as for a normal room, with the exception 
+> that `invite_state` sent along with invites should be amended to include the
+> `m.room.create` event, to allow clients to discern whether an invite is to a 
+> space-room or not.
+
+## Proposal
+
+Any user who is able to join a room can access the stripped state events of that room.
+
+Potential ways that a user might be able to join include, but are not limited to,
+the following mechanisms:
+
+* A room that has `join_rules` set to `public` or `knock`.<sup id="a1">[1](#f1)</sup>
+* A room that the user is in possession of an invite to (regardless of the `join_rules`).
+
+Future MSCs might include additional mechanism for a user to join a room and 
+should consider this MSC, for example:
+
+* [MSC3083: Restricting room membership based on space membership](https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-doc/pull/3083) proposes allowing users to join a room based on their membership in a space (as defined in [MSC1772](https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-doc/pull/1772)).
+
+Additionally, it is recommended, but not required, that homeserver implementations
+include the following as stripped state events:
+
+* Create event (`m.room.create`)<sup id="a2">[2](#f2)</sup>
+* Join rules (`m.room.join_rules`)
+* Canonical alias (`m.room.canonical_alias`)
+* Room avatar (`m.room.avatar`)
+* Room name (`m.room.name`)
+* Encrypted status (`m.room.encryption`)<sup id="a3">[3](#f3)</sup>
+
+This also implies that the above information is available to any potential joiner 
+in the API proposed in [MSC2946: Spaces summary](https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-doc/pull/2946). 
+I.e. rooms which could be joined due to [MSC3083](https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-doc/pull/3083)
+can expose the information available in stripped state events.
+
+## Potential issues
+
+This is a generalization of current behavior and shouldn't introduce any new issues.
+
+## Alternatives
+
+A different approach to this would be to separately specify each situation in which
+a user is allowed to see stripped state events, as we do currently for invites and
+knocking.
+
+## Security considerations
+
+The server-server API discussed in [MSC2946](https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-doc/pull/2946)
+does not know the user who is requesting a summary of the space, but should divulge
+the above information if any member of a server could see it. It is up to the
+calling server to properly filter this information.
+
+Consider that Alice and Bob share a server; Alice is a member of a space, but Bob
+is not. The remote server will not know whether the request is on behalf of Alice
+or Bob (and hence whether it should share details of private rooms within that 
+space).
+
+Trust is placed in the calling server: if there are any users on the calling
+server in the correct space, that calling server has a right to know about the
+rooms in that space and should return the relevant summaries, along with enough 
+information that the calling server can then do some filtering.
+
+(The alternative, where the calling server sends the requesting `user_id`, and 
+the target server does the filtering, is unattractive because it rules out a
+future world where the calling server can cache the result.)
+
+This does not decrease security since a server could lie and make a request on 
+behalf of a user in the proper space to see the given information. I.e. the 
+calling server must be trusted anyway.
+
+## Future extensions
+
+Dedicated client-server and server-server APIs could be added to request the
+stripped state events, but that is considered out-of-scope for the current
+proposal.
+
+## Unstable prefix
+
+N/A
+
+## Footnotes
+
+<a id="f1"/>[1]: The rationale for including `knock` is that the user can
+trivially get this state already by knocking on the room.[↩](#a1)
+
+<a id="f2"/>[2]: As updated in [MSC1772](https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-doc/pull/1772).[↩](#a2)
+
+<a id="f3"/>[3]: This is already sent from Synapse and generally seems useful for
+a user to know before joining a room.[↩](#a3)