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CVE-2020-26891 Moderate

Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in the fallback authentication endpoint

### Impact The fallback authentication endpoint served via Synapse was vulnerable to cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks. The impact depends on the configuration of the domain that Synapse is deployed on, but may allow access to cookies and other browser data, CSRF vulnerabilities, and access to other resources served on the same domain or parent domains. ### Patches This is fixed by #8444, which is included in Synapse v1.21.0. ### Workarounds If the homeserver is not configured to use reCAPTCHA, consent (terms of service), or single sign-on then the affected endpoint can be blocked at a reverse proxy: * `/_matrix/client/r0/auth/.*/fallback/web` * `/_matrix/client/unstable/auth/.*/fallback/web`

Exploit probability 1.9%
Published October 16, 2020
Required by Not available
Last source change July 8, 2026

02 / AFFECTED SOFTWARE

Affected packages

Unknown Unknown

123 explicit affected versions

PyPI matrix-synapse

129 explicit affected versions

PyPI matrix-synapse

129 explicit affected versions

03 / CONNECTIONS

Connected vulnerabilities

04 / EVIDENCE

Source records

Open Source Vulnerabilities CVE-2020-26891

AuthRestServlet in Matrix Synapse before 1.21.0 is vulnerable to XSS due to unsafe interpolation of the session GET parameter. This allows a remote attacker to execute an XSS attack on the domain Synapse is hosted on, by supplying the victim user with a malicious URL to the /_matrix/client/r0/auth/*/fallback/web or /_matrix/client/unstable/auth/*/fallback/web Synapse endpoints.

View original source
Open Source Vulnerabilities GHSA-3x8c-fmpc-5rmq

### Impact The fallback authentication endpoint served via Synapse was vulnerable to cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks. The impact depends on the configuration of the domain that Synapse is deployed on, but may allow access to cookies and other browser data, CSRF vulnerabilities, and access to other resources served on the same domain or parent domains. ### Patches This is fixed by #8444, which is included in Synapse v1.21.0. ### Workarounds If the homeserver is not configured to use reCAPTCHA, consent (terms of service), or single sign-on then the affected endpoint can be blocked at a reverse proxy: * `/_matrix/client/r0/auth/.*/fallback/web` * `/_matrix/client/unstable/auth/.*/fallback/web`

View original source
Open Source Vulnerabilities PYSEC-2020-238

AuthRestServlet in Matrix Synapse before 1.21.0 is vulnerable to XSS due to unsafe interpolation of the session GET parameter. This allows a remote attacker to execute an XSS attack on the domain Synapse is hosted on, by supplying the victim user with a malicious URL to the /_matrix/client/r0/auth/*/fallback/web or /_matrix/client/unstable/auth/*/fallback/web Synapse endpoints.

View original source

05 / REFERENCES

Further evidence