Description
Synapse is an open source home server implementation for the Matrix chat network. In versions prior to 1.61.1 URL previews of some web pages can exhaust the available stack space for the Synapse process due to unbounded recursion. This is sometimes recoverable and leads to an error for the request causing the problem, but in other cases the Synapse process may crash altogether. It is possible to exploit this maliciously, either by malicious users on the homeserver, or by remote users sending URLs that a local user's client may automatically request a URL preview for. Remote users are not able to exploit this directly, because the URL preview endpoint is authenticated. Deployments with `url_preview_enabled: false` set in configuration are not affected. Deployments with `url_preview_enabled: true` set in configuration **are** affected. Deployments with no configuration value set for `url_preview_enabled` are not affected, because the default is `false`. Administrators of homeservers with URL previews enabled are advised to upgrade to v1.61.1 or higher. Users unable to upgrade should set `url_preview_enabled` to false.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|---|
| matrix-org | synapse | < 1.61.1 | — |
Fixed in Linux distributions
Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.
Ubuntu
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu Pro 22.04 LTS | matrix-synapse | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS | matrix-synapse | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS | matrix-synapse | No fix yet | — |
openSUSE
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| openSUSE Tumbleweed | matrix-synapse | 1.61.1-1.1 | openSUSE-SU-2024:12160-1 |
Alpine
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alpine v3.24 | synapse | 1.61.1-r0 | — |
| Alpine v3.23 | synapse | 1.61.1-r0 | — |
| Alpine v3.22 | synapse | 1.61.1-r0 | — |
| Alpine v3.21 | synapse | 1.61.1-r0 | — |
| Alpine v3.20 | synapse | 1.61.1-r0 | — |
Show 4 more (older releases, extended support, other products)Fewer releases
| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alpine v3.19 | synapse | 1.61.1-r0 | — |
| Alpine v3.18 | synapse | 1.61.1-r0 | — |
| Alpine v3.17 | synapse | 1.61.1-r0 | — |
| Alpine v3.16 | synapse | 1.61.1-r0 | — |
Affected packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Affected | Fixed | Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PyPI | matrix-synapse | < 1.61.1 | 1.61.1 | GHSA-22p3-qrh9-cx32 |
Advisories 1
- openSUSE-SU-2024:12160-1 matrix-synapse-1.61.1-1.1 on GA media SUSE / openSUSE Security Updates · May 7, 2025
References
- https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/security/advisories/GHSA-22p3-qrh9-cx32
- https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/commit/fa1308061802ac7b7d20e954ba7372c5ac292333
- https://spec.matrix.org/v1.2/client-server-api/#get_matrixmediav3preview_url
- FEDORA-2022-45bf6d4b88 vendor-advisory
- FEDORA-2022-1a2312e4d6 vendor-advisory