Notes returned as valid json instead of inspected string over RPC

[sjanusz-r7]

Closes #21249
Tested in Pro under workspaces/1/notes

Before

Data is inspected, returned as a single string

>> rpc.call("db.notes", {})
=> 
{"notes"=>
  [{"time"=>1774630729, "host"=>"", "service"=>"", "type"=>"shellcode.bin.localpath", "data"=>"{:full_path=>\"/Users/x/.msf4/local/bin.bin\"}"},
   {"time"=>1774624210, "host"=>"", "service"=>"", "type"=>"evasion.fileformat.process_herpaderping.localpath", "data"=>"{:full_path=>\"/Users/x/.msf4/local/ioxj.exe\"}"},
   {"time"=>1776072168, "host"=>"", "service"=>"", "type"=>"evasion.fileformat.syscall_inject.localpath", "data"=>"{:full_path=>\"/Users/x/.msf4/local/met.exe\"}"},
   {"time"=>1776160364, "host"=>"127.0.0.1", "service"=>"", "type"=>"host.os.session_fingerprint", "data"=>"{:name=>\"caea2eea7ecb\", :os=>\"Debian 9.6 (Linux 6.12.76-linuxkit)\", :arch=>\"x64\"}"},
   {"time"=>1776160491, "host"=>"127.0.0.1", "service"=>"", "type"=>"host.comments", "data"=>"{:host_data=>\"hello world, this is a comment\"}"}]}

In Pro, the data is also rendered correctly:

After

Data is parsed correctly as a hash

>> rpc.call("db.notes", {})
=> 
{"notes"=>
  [{"time"=>1774630729, "host"=>"", "service"=>"", "type"=>"shellcode.bin.localpath", "data"=>{"full_path"=>"/Users/x/.msf4/local/bin.bin"}},
   {"time"=>1774624210, "host"=>"", "service"=>"", "type"=>"evasion.fileformat.process_herpaderping.localpath", "data"=>{"full_path"=>"/Users/x/.msf4/local/ioxj.exe"}},
   {"time"=>1776072168, "host"=>"", "service"=>"", "type"=>"evasion.fileformat.syscall_inject.localpath", "data"=>{"full_path"=>"/Users/x/.msf4/local/met.exe"}},
   {"time"=>1776160364, "host"=>"127.0.0.1", "service"=>"", "type"=>"host.os.session_fingerprint", "data"=>{"name"=>"caea2eea7ecb", "os"=>"Debian 9.6 (Linux 6.12.76-linuxkit)", "arch"=>"x64"}},
   {"time"=>1776160491, "host"=>"127.0.0.1", "service"=>"", "type"=>"host.comments", "data"=>{"host_data"=>"hello world, this is a comment"}}]}

Pro also renders the hash correctly, with no changes to functionality:

In Pro, the code should handle this automatically where necessary as it calls off to:

def note_data_html
      if data.kind_of?(Hash)

which handles the Hash scenario.

JSON RPC

This also works out of the box with the JSON RPC layer:

      {
        "time": 1776160491,
        "host": "127.0.0.1",
        "service": "",
        "type": "host.comments",
        "data": {
          "host_data": "hello world, this is a comment"
        }
      },
      {
        "time": 1776072168,
        "host": "",
        "service": "",
        "type": "evasion.fileformat.syscall_inject.localpath",
        "data": {
          "full_path": "/Users/sjanusz/.msf4/local/met.exe"
        }
      },

Verification

List the steps needed to make sure this thing works

• Start msfconsole
• load msgrpc
• Run RPC client using msfrpc
• Verify calling rpc.call("db.notes", {}) works and returns the expected notes data in correct format

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Updates the db.notes RPC endpoint output so note data is returned as structured content (rather than an inspected string), aligning the RPC response with how notes are stored/used elsewhere in the framework.

Changes:

• Return Mdm::Note#data directly from rpc_notes instead of n.data.inspect.

[Copilot]

rpc_notes now returns n.data directly, which (1) does not implement the requested backward compatibility for legacy notes where data is a plain String (issue asks to convert those to a JSON-like object such as { "data": "..." }), and (2) can return non-JSON/MessagePack-friendly values (e.g., nested Symbols, Times, custom objects) that previously were safely stringified via inspect. Consider normalizing the outgoing value to JSON-safe primitives (deep-stringify keys and coerce unknown values), and wrapping non-Hash data in a predictable structure; also update the YARD docs above this method which still state 'data' [String].

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 1 out of 1 changed files in this pull request and generated 1 comment.

[Copilot]

This change alters the db.notes RPC response shape (data is no longer always a String). There are existing RPC v10 specs (e.g., for console/core/session), but none covering RPC_Db#rpc_notes; adding a spec that exercises rpc_notes with (1) Hash note data, (2) legacy String note data, and (3) nil/edge cases would help prevent regressions and validate the intended serialization behavior.

[bwatters-r7]

I second the idea of further rspec tests