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OpenAdvisories
High · 8.2 CVE-2024-53863 EUVD-2024-3513GHSA-vp6v-whfm-rv3gPYSEC-2026-1615

Synapse can be forced to thumbnail unexpected file formats, invoking external, potentially untrustworthy decoders

Published Dec 3, 2024 · Updated Dec 3, 2024 · Assigned by GitHub_M

Description

Synapse is an open-source Matrix homeserver. In Synapse versions before 1.120.1, enabling the dynamic_thumbnails option or processing a specially crafted request could trigger the decoding and thumbnail generation of uncommon image formats, potentially invoking external tools like Ghostscript for processing. This significantly expands the attack surface in a historically vulnerable area, presenting a risk that far outweighs the benefit, particularly since these formats are rarely used on the open web or within the Matrix ecosystem. Synapse 1.120.1 addresses the issue by restricting thumbnail generation to images in the following widely used formats: PNG, JPEG, GIF, and WebP. This vulnerability is fixed in 1.120.1.

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
element-hq synapse < 1.120.1 —

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.

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS matrix-synapse No fix yet —
Show 3 more (older releases, extended support, other products)
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu Pro 22.04 LTS matrix-synapse 1.53.0-1ubuntu0.1~esm2 USN-7444-1
Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS matrix-synapse 1.11.0-1ubuntu0.1~esm2 USN-7444-1
Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS matrix-synapse 0.24.0+dfsg-1ubuntu0.1~esm4 USN-7444-1
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
openSUSE Tumbleweed matrix-synapse 1.120.2-1.1 openSUSE-SU-2024:14541-1
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Alpine v3.24 synapse 1.120.2-r0 —
Alpine v3.23 synapse 1.120.2-r0 —
Alpine v3.22 synapse 1.120.2-r0 —
Alpine v3.21 synapse 1.120.2-r0 —
Alpine v3.20 synapse 1.120.1 —

Affected packages

EcosystemPackageAffectedFixedRecord
PyPI matrix-synapse < 1.120.1 1.120.1 GHSA-vp6v-whfm-rv3g

Advisories 2

References