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Medium

Denial of service (via resource exhaustion) due to improper input validation on third-party identifier endpoints

  • Disclosed: 12.04.2021
  • Updated: 11.10.2026 13:19

Impact

Missing input validation of some parameters on the endpoints used to confirm third-party identifiers could cause excessive use of disk space and memory leading to resource exhaustion.

Patches

The issue is fixed by #9321.

Workarounds

Depending on the needs and configuration of the homeserver a few options are available:

  1. Using email as third-party identifiers be disabled by not configuring the email setting.

  2. Using phone numbers as third-party identifiers can be disabled by ensuring that account_threepid_delegates.msisdn is not configured.

  3. Additionally, the affected endpoint patterns can be blocked at a reverse proxy:

    • ^/_matrix/client/(r0|unstable)/register/email
    • ^/_matrix/client/(r0|unstable)/register/msisdn
    • ^/_matrix/client/(r0|unstable)/account/password
    • ^/_matrix/client/(r0|unstable)/account/3pid

Affected software

Click a technology to see all vulnerabilities affecting it.

PlatformPackageVulnerable versionsFixed in
Python (PyPI) matrix-synapse < 1.28.0 1.28.0

References

CVSS score 5.3/10
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Weakness (CWE)
CWE-20
Platform
Python (PyPI)
Package
matrix-synapse
Disclosed
12.04.2021
Updated
11.10.2026 13:19

Sources and licenses

OSV / GitHub Advisory Database - PYSEC-2021-27 - PyPA Advisory Database; CC BY 4.0

OSV / GitHub Advisory Database - GHSA-w9fg-xffh-p362 - CC BY 4.0

Vulnerability history: matrix-synapse

All published vulnerabilities of this package (Python (PyPI)), newest first. Shows whether this is a one-off slip or a package that needs watching.

All (45) in the archive
Total entries
45
First → latest
03.2019 05.2026
Without a fix
0
Exploited in attacks
0

Severity breakdown

  • High 21
  • Medium 21
  • Low 3

Disclosures per year

Severity:
  1. Synapse CPU starvation (Denial of Service)
    High · 5.5 CVE-2026-45078 < 1.152.1 1.152.1
  2. Synapse vulnerable to federation denial of service via malformed events
    High · 7.1 CVE-2025-30355 < 1.127.1 1.127.1
  3. Synapse can be forced to thumbnail unexpected file formats, invoking external, potentially untrustworthy decoders
    High CVE-2024-53863 < 1.120.1 1.120.1
  4. Synapse allows a a malformed invite to break the invitee's `/sync`
    High CVE-2024-52815 < 1.120.1 1.120.1
  5. Synapse allows unsupported content types to lead to memory exhaustion
    High CVE-2024-52805 < 1.120.1 1.120.1
  6. Synapse denial of service through media disk space consumption
    High · 7.5 CVE-2024-37302 < 1.106 1.106
  7. Synapse Denial of service due to incorrect application of event authorization rules during state resolution
    High · 6.5 CVE-2022-39374 >= 1.62.0, < 1.68.0rc1 1.68.0rc1
  8. Synapse does not apply enough checks to servers requesting auth events of events in a room
    High · 5.0 CVE-2022-39335 < 1.69.0 1.69.0
  9. Denial of service due to incorrect application of event authorization rules
    High · 7.5 CVE-2022-31152 < 1.62.0rc1 1.62.0rc1
  10. URL previews of unusual or maliciously-crafted pages can crash Synapse media repositories or Synapse monoliths
    High · 6.5 CVE-2022-31052 < 1.61.1 1.61.1
  11. Matrix Synapse DoS
    High · 7.5 CVE-2018-10657 < 0.28.1 0.28.1
  12. Matrix Synapse Improper Signature Validation
    High · 8.8 CVE-2018-16515 >= 0.33.3, < 0.33.3.1, < 0.33.2.1 0.33.3.1, 0.33.2.1
  13. Matrix Synapse Authorization Error
    High · 7.5 CVE-2018-12423 < 0.31.2 0.31.2
  14. Matrix Synapse Security Filtering Flaw
    High · 7.5 CVE-2018-12291 < 0.31.1 0.31.1
  15. Path traversal in Matrix Synapse
    High · 7.5 CVE-2021-41281 < 1.47.1 1.47.1
  16. Open redirect via transitional IPv6 addresses on dual-stack networks
    High · 6.3 CVE-2021-21392 < 1.28.0rc1 1.28.0rc1
  17. Denial of service (via resource exhaustion) due to improper input validation on third-party identifier endpoints this entry
    Medium · 5.3 CVE-2021-21394 < 1.28.0 1.28.0
  18. Denial of service attack via incorrect parameters in Matrix Synapse
    High · 6.5 CVE-2020-26257 < 1.23.1 1.23.1
  19. Denial of service attack due to invalid JSON
    High · 7.5 CVE-2020-26890 < 1.20.0 1.20.0
  20. Improper Verification of Cryptographic Signature in matrix-synapse
    High · 8.6 CVE-2019-18835 < 1.5.0 1.5.0
  21. matrix-sydent and matrix-synapse Use Cryptographically Weak PRNG
    High · 7.5 CVE-2019-11842 < 0.99.3.1 0.99.3.1
  22. Matrix Synapse before 0.34.0.1, when the macaroon_secret_key authentication parameter is not set, uses a predictable value to derive a secret key and other secrets which could allow remote attackers t
    High · 7.5 CVE-2019-5885 < 0.34.0.1 0.34.0.1

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