Affected: GOVCERT-LU eml_parser

eml_parser serves as a python module for parsing eml files and returning various information found in the e-mail as well as computed information. Prior to 3.0.2, the clean_found_uri function in eml_parser/parser.py validates potential URL strings before unescaping HTML entities used for colon, slash, or period characters. Valid encoded URLs and their host names are therefore rejected and omitted from the extracted URL and domain lists. Email security gateways and SOC pipelines that use those lists as indicators of compromise may fail to submit the hidden URLs to threat intelligence feeds, reputation services, or sandboxes, allowing malicious links to bypass inspection. This issue is fixed in version 3.0.2.

Affected: PyPI: eml_parser

## Summary

`eml_parser` performs certain validations on potential URL strings to discard bogus values. In versions prior to `3.0.2`, this validation was performed before unescaping any HTML entities that might occur in the string. This caused the library to wrongfully reject valid URLs that use HTML entities for the `:`, `/`, or `.` characters. These URLs would then not be included in the list of extracted URLs. Similarly, the host parts of such URLs would not be extracted.

For example, neither the URL `https://phishing.example.com` nor its host (`phishing.example.com`) would appear in the parsing result.

## Impact

`eml_parser` is used in email security gateways and SOC pipelines to extract URLs as IOCs. Those URLs are then checked against threat-intel feeds, URL reputation services, and sandboxes. A URL that is not extracted is never checked.

## Patches

Since version 3.0.2 the library unescapes all HTML entities in every URL before deciding to accept or reject it. A test was added to prevent regressions.