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Medium

Uncontrolled Resource Consumption in Matrix Synapse

  • Disclosed: 01.04.2022
  • Updated: 11.10.2026 13:17

Impact

Synapse before 1.52.0 with URL preview functionality enabled will attempt to generate URL previews for media stream URLs without properly limiting connection time. Connections will only be terminated after max_spider_size (default: 10M) bytes have been downloaded, which can in some cases lead to long-lived connections towards the streaming media server (for instance, Icecast).

This can cause excessive traffic and connections toward such servers if their stream URL is, for example, posted to a large room with many Synapse instances with URL preview enabled.

Patches

1.52.0 implements a timeout mechanism which will terminate URL preview connections after 30 seconds. Since generating URL previews for media streams is not supported and always fails, 1.53.0 additionally implements an allow list for content types for which Synapse will even attempt to generate a URL preview.

We recommend upgrading to 1.53.0 to fully resolve the issue.

Workarounds

Turn off URL preview functionality by setting url_preview_enabled: false in the Synapse configuration file.

References

For more information

If you have any questions or comments about this advisory, e-mail us at security@matrix.org.

Affected software

Click a technology to see all vulnerabilities affecting it.

PlatformPackageVulnerable versionsFixed in
Python (PyPI) matrix-synapse < 1.53.0 1.53.0

References

CVSS score 5.3/10
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
Weakness (CWE)
CWE-400, CWE-772
Platform
Python (PyPI)
Package
matrix-synapse
Disclosed
01.04.2022
Updated
11.10.2026 13:17

Sources and licenses

OSV / GitHub Advisory Database - PYSEC-2026-663 - PyPA Advisory Database; CC BY 4.0

OSV / GitHub Advisory Database - GHSA-4822-jvwx-w47h - 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. Uncontrolled Resource Consumption in Matrix Synapse this entry
    Medium · 5.3 CVE-2022-41952 < 1.53.0 1.53.0
  16. Path traversal in Matrix Synapse
    High · 7.5 CVE-2021-41281 < 1.47.1 1.47.1
  17. Open redirect via transitional IPv6 addresses on dual-stack networks
    High · 6.3 CVE-2021-21392 < 1.28.0rc1 1.28.0rc1
  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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