MSC4011: Thumbnail media negotiation

proposals/4011-thumbnail-media-negotiation.md

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+# MSC4011: Thumbnail media negotiation
+
+It is currently up to the homeserver to decide which media formats are exposed
+by the media repository for the [`/thumbnail` endpoint](https://spec.matrix.org/v1.6/client-server-api/#get_matrixmediav3thumbnailservernamemediaid).
+
+It is a [frequent request](https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-spec/issues/453)
+to support thumbnailing into different (usually more modern) formats, but this
+is not currently possible.
+
+## Proposal
+
+Homeservers will use the [`Accept` header](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/Accept)
+header in its [content negotiation](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Content_negotiation#server-driven_content_negotiation)
+algorithm to determine what thumbnail format to serve to the client.
+
+Homeservers *must* support providing responses for `image/png` and `image/jpeg`
+for the `/thumbnail` endpoint, but do not need to actually provide every thumbnail
+in both formats. (These formats are known as the "fallback formats" below.) Clients
+which support thumbnails are expected to support both of these formats.
+
+If the client & homeserver cannot successfully negotiate a format (e.g. due to no
+overlap in supported formats, a missing, or invalid `Accept` header) then the
+server shall use one of the "fallback formats" to serve the response.
+
+A homeserver may choose to support additional formats, e.g. `image/webp`, and
+serve them to clients which explicitly request them but *must* use the fallback
+formats in other cases.
+
+For example, if the `Accept` header includes `image/webp` then the homeserver
+may choose to provide a WebP thumbnail, but if the header is `image/*` or `*/*`
+then it must fallback to `image/png` or `image/jpeg`.
+
+### Impact on bridges
+
+???
+
+## Potential issues
+
+It is possible that a client is *already sending the `Accept`* header but would
+be unable to cope with actually receiving different types of media. This seems
+unlikely and would be up-to clients to fix.
+
+## Alternatives
+
+Synapse [previously had an unspecced `type` parameter](https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/issues/14913),
+which was a poor version of the `Accept` header.
+
+Do nothing and leave this up to homeserver implementation.
+
+A [`406 Not Acceptable`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Status/406)
+could be served as the response instead of a fallback response. This has more
+potential to break current clients, however.
+
+## Future extensions
+
+It may make sense to also apply this to the `/download` resource. This could
+allow simple clients to make a request to `/download` which is only fulfilled
+for e.g. images (by requesting it with `Accept: image/*`).
+
+## Security considerations
+
+This depends on the media format that a homeserver or client wishes to support.
+
+For example, homeservers and clients should be especially careful if attempting
+to thumbnail SVG images due to the [Billion laughs Attack](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billion_laughs_attack).[^1]
+
+There are not other expected security issues besides those inherent in the
+thumbnailing endpoint.
+
+## Unstable prefix
+
+N/A as the `Accept` header is a [standardized](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/Accept).
+
+## Dependencies
+
+N/A
+
+[^1]: See [Synapse commit `bd77216 `](https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/commit/bd77216d06518ace2ec6213aa0ac0c834e923456).