GHSA-gjgr-7834-rhxr is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.3) Missing Authentication vulnerability in matrix-synapse. A fix is available for matrix-synapse — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Synapse's unauthenticated writes to the media repository allow planting of problematic content
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for GHSA-gjgr-7834-rhxr.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
GHSA-gjgr-7834-rhxr by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 379,842 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.
Real-World Exposure
matrix-synapseReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects PyPI packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Impact
Synapse before version 1.106 allows, by design, unauthenticated remote participants to trigger a download and caching of remote media from a remote homeserver to the local media repository. Such content then also becomes available for download from the local homeserver in an unauthenticated way. The implication is that unauthenticated remote adversaries can use this functionality to plant problematic content into the media repository.
Patches
Synapse 1.106 introduces a partial mitigation in the form of new endpoints which require authentication for media downloads. The unauthenticated endpoints will be frozen in a future release, closing the attack vector.
Workarounds
Though extremely limited, server operators can use more strict rate limits based on IP address.
References
For more information
If you have any questions or comments about this advisory, please email us at security at element.io.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | matrix-synapse | all versions | 1.106pip install --upgrade 'matrix-synapse==1.106' |
Affected Products
synapsematrixDetection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for matrix-synapse, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update matrix-synapse to 1.106 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-gjgr-7834-rhxr is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Put an independent control in front of the weakness: restrict the affected endpoint or interface to trusted networks, require an additional authentication factor or proxy-level check, and invalidate existing sessions and credentials in case the flaw has already been used.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-gjgr-7834-rhxr in your dependencies?
Find it across PyPI, including transitive dependencies.