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CVE-2020-26257 High

Denial of service attack via incorrect parameters in Matrix Synapse

### Impact A malicious or poorly-implemented homeserver can inject malformed events into a room by specifying a different room id in the path of a `/send_join`, `/send_leave`, `/invite` or `/exchange_third_party_invite` request. This can lead to a denial of service in which future events will not be correctly sent to other servers over federation. This affects any server which accepts federation requests from untrusted servers. ### Patches Issue is resolved by https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/pull/8776. ### Workarounds Homeserver administrators could limit access to the federation API to trusted servers (for example via `federation_domain_whitelist`).

Exploit probability 2.4%
Published December 9, 2020
Required by Not available
Last source change March 13, 2026

02 / AFFECTED SOFTWARE

Affected packages

Unknown Unknown

120 explicit affected versions

PyPI matrix-synapse

138 explicit affected versions

PyPI matrix-synapse

138 explicit affected versions

03 / CONNECTIONS

Connected vulnerabilities

04 / EVIDENCE

Source records

Open Source Vulnerabilities CVE-2020-26257

Matrix is an ecosystem for open federated Instant Messaging and VoIP. Synapse is a reference "homeserver" implementation of Matrix. A malicious or poorly-implemented homeserver can inject malformed events into a room by specifying a different room id in the path of a `/send_join`, `/send_leave`, `/invite` or `/exchange_third_party_invite` request. This can lead to a denial of service in which future events will not be correctly sent to other servers over federation. This affects any server which accepts federation requests from untrusted servers. The Matrix Synapse reference implementation before version 1.23.1 the implementation is vulnerable to this injection attack. Issue is fixed in version 1.23.1. As a workaround homeserver administrators could limit access to the federation API to trusted servers (for example via `federation_domain_whitelist`).

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Open Source Vulnerabilities GHSA-hxmp-pqch-c8mm

### Impact A malicious or poorly-implemented homeserver can inject malformed events into a room by specifying a different room id in the path of a `/send_join`, `/send_leave`, `/invite` or `/exchange_third_party_invite` request. This can lead to a denial of service in which future events will not be correctly sent to other servers over federation. This affects any server which accepts federation requests from untrusted servers. ### Patches Issue is resolved by https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/pull/8776. ### Workarounds Homeserver administrators could limit access to the federation API to trusted servers (for example via `federation_domain_whitelist`).

View original source
Open Source Vulnerabilities PYSEC-2020-236

Matrix is an ecosystem for open federated Instant Messaging and VoIP. Synapse is a reference "homeserver" implementation of Matrix. A malicious or poorly-implemented homeserver can inject malformed events into a room by specifying a different room id in the path of a `/send_join`, `/send_leave`, `/invite` or `/exchange_third_party_invite` request. This can lead to a denial of service in which future events will not be correctly sent to other servers over federation. This affects any server which accepts federation requests from untrusted servers. The Matrix Synapse reference implementation before version 1.23.1 the implementation is vulnerable to this injection attack. Issue is fixed in version 1.23.1. As a workaround homeserver administrators could limit access to the federation API to trusted servers (for example via `federation_domain_whitelist`).

View original source

05 / REFERENCES

Further evidence