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High

Synapse vulnerable to federation denial of service via malformed events

  • Disclosed: 27.03.2025
  • Updated: 11.10.2026 13:18

Impact

A malicious server can craft events with a depth outside the integer range allowed by Canonical JSON. When such an event is received by Synapse version up to 1.127.0, it prevents it from federating with other servers. The vulnerability has been exploited in the wild.

Patches

Fixed in Synapse v1.127.1.

Workarounds

Closed federation environments of trusted servers or non-federating installations are not affected.

For more information

If you have any questions or comments about this advisory, please email us at security at element.io.

Affected software

Click a technology to see all vulnerabilities affecting it.

PlatformPackageVulnerable versionsFixed in
Python (PyPI) matrix-synapse < 1.127.1 1.127.1

References

CVSS score 7.1/10
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:H
Weakness (CWE)
CWE-20
Platform
Python (PyPI)
Package
matrix-synapse
Disclosed
27.03.2025
Updated
11.10.2026 13:18

Sources and licenses

OSV / GitHub Advisory Database - PYSEC-2026-1614 - PyPA Advisory Database; CC BY 4.0

OSV / GitHub Advisory Database - GHSA-v56r-hwv5-mxg6 - 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 this entry
    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 attack via incorrect parameters in Matrix Synapse
    High · 6.5 CVE-2020-26257 < 1.23.1 1.23.1
  18. Denial of service attack due to invalid JSON
    High · 7.5 CVE-2020-26890 < 1.20.0 1.20.0
  19. Improper Verification of Cryptographic Signature in matrix-synapse
    High · 8.6 CVE-2019-18835 < 1.5.0 1.5.0
  20. matrix-sydent and matrix-synapse Use Cryptographically Weak PRNG
    High · 7.5 CVE-2019-11842 < 0.99.3.1 0.99.3.1
Show more (1) Showing 20 of 21

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