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).
CVE-2020-26257
This medium-severity CVE scores 6.5 under NVD CVSS v3. EPSS exploit-prediction score not yet available (the EPSS model rescores nightly; freshly-published CVEs typically appear within 48 hours). GitHub Security Advisory data not yet ingested — confidence will rise once GHSA publishes (typical lag: hours to days for open-source ecosystem CVEs; never for infrastructure-only CVEs).
- Lower severity and no public exploit yet
No vendor fix yet — apply a workaround or compensating control (WAF / firewall / segmentation) and watch for a patch.
- CVSS v3
- 6.5
- EG Score
- 6.5(low)
- EPSS
- 81.8%
- KEV
- Not listed
Published
December 9, 2020
Last Modified
November 21, 2024
References (12)
- security-advisories@githubhttps://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/blob/develop/CHANGES.md#synapse-1231-2020-12-09
- security-advisories@githubhttps://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/commit/3ce2f303f15f6ac3dc352298972dc6e04d9b7a8b
- security-advisories@githubhttps://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/pull/8776
- security-advisories@githubhttps://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/security/advisories/GHSA-hxmp-pqch-c8mm
- security-advisories@githubhttps://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/DBTIU3ZNBFWZ56V4X7JIAD33V5H2GOMC/
- security-advisories@githubhttps://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/QR4MMYZKX5N5GYGH4H5LBUUC5TLAFHI7/
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/blob/develop/CHANGES.md#synapse-1231-2020-12-09
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/commit/3ce2f303f15f6ac3dc352298972dc6e04d9b7a8b
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/pull/8776
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/security/advisories/GHSA-hxmp-pqch-c8mm
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/DBTIU3ZNBFWZ56V4X7JIAD33V5H2GOMC/
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/QR4MMYZKX5N5GYGH4H5LBUUC5TLAFHI7/
Affected Packages
(1 across 1 ecosystem)
PyPI(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fixed in | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| matrix-synapse | 0.33.5 ... 1.9.1 (138 versions) | 1.23.1 | — |
Weakness Classification(2)
MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.
Data Freshness Timeline
(refreshed 9× in last 7d / 39× in last 30d)
Each row is a source pipeline that fetched or updated this CVE on that date, with what changed. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. Most recent first.
- 2026-07-11 08:25 UTCEPSS rescore
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- 2026-05-24 16:48 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-23 04:29 UTCEG score recompute
Related CVEs(same CWE)
Same CWE
10 shownCWE-400 · CWE-79
Frequently asked(5)
What is CVE-2020-26257?
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Is CVE-2020-26257 actively exploited?
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2020-26257?
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