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CVE-2021-21273

Open redirects on some federation and push requests

3.1 LowFix available

Synapse is a Matrix reference homeserver written in python (pypi package matrix-synapse). Matrix is an ecosystem for open federated Instant Messaging and VoIP. In Synapse before version 1.25.0, requests to user provided domains were not restricted to external IP addresses when calculating the key validity for third-party invite events and sending push notifications. This could cause Synapse to make requests to internal infrastructure. The type of request was not controlled by the user, although limited modification of request bodies was possible. For the most thorough protection server administrators should remove the deprecated federation_ip_range_blacklist from their settings after upgrading to Synapse v1.25.0 which will result in Synapse using the improved default IP address restrictions. See the new ip_range_blacklist and ip_range_whitelist settings if more specific control is necessary.

Attack profile

How easy it is to exploit

Attack vector
Network
Complexity
High
Privileges needed
None
User interaction
Required

What an attacker can affect

Confidentiality
None
Integrity
Low
Availability
None

Exploit likelihood

1.80%Up 0.8 points since Apr 14, 2021
90%50%10%1%

What each source reports

CVE List Score used 3.1

Open redirects on some federation and push requests

Synapse is a Matrix reference homeserver written in python (pypi package matrix-synapse). Matrix is an ecosystem for open federated Instant Messaging and VoIP. In Synapse before version 1.25.0, requests to user provided domains were not restricted to external IP addresses when calculating the key validity for third-party invite events and sending push notifications. This could cause Synapse to make requests to internal infrastructure. The type of request was not controlled by the user, although limited modification of request bodies was possible. For the most thorough protection server administrators should remove the deprecated federation_ip_range_blacklist from their settings after upgrading to Synapse v1.25.0 which will result in Synapse using the improved default IP address restrictions. See the new ip_range_blacklist and ip_range_whitelist settings if more specific control is necessary.

Record
CVE-2021-21273
CVSS 3.1
3.1 LowCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N
Weakness
CWE-601
Updated
2026-11-02
EUVDEUVD-2021-0123 3.1

Synapse is a Matrix reference homeserver written in python (pypi package matrix-synapse). Matrix is an ecosystem for open federated Instant Messaging and VoIP. In Synapse before version 1.25.0, requests to user provided domains were not restricted to external IP addresses when calculating the key validity for third-party invite events and sending push notifications. This could cause Synapse to make requests to internal infrastructure. The type of request was not controlled by the user, although limited modification of request bodies was possible. For the most thorough protection server administrators should remove the deprecated federation_ip_range_blacklist from their settings after upgrading to Synapse v1.25.0 which will result in Synapse using the improved default IP address restrictions. See the new ip_range_blacklist and ip_range_whitelist settings if more specific control is necessary.

Record
EUVD-2021-0123
CVSS 3.1
3.1 LowCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N
Updated
2026-11-03
GitHub AdvisoriesGHSA-v936-j8gp-9q3p 6.3

Open redirects on some federation and push requests

Impact

Requests to user provided domains were not restricted to external IP addresses when calculating the key validity for third-party invite events and sending push notifications. This could cause Synapse to make requests to internal infrastructure. The type of request was not controlled by the user, although limited modification of request bodies was possible.

For the most thorough protection server administrators should remove the deprecated federation_ip_range_blacklist from their settings after upgrading to Synapse v1.25.0 which will result in Synapse using the improved default IP address restrictions. See the new ip_range_blacklist and ip_range_whitelist settings if more specific control is necessary.

Patches

Issue is resolved by #8821. Further improvements to protect homeservers by default were made in #8870 and #8954.

Workarounds

Requests to internal IP addresses could be blocked at the system or network level.

Record
GHSA-v936-j8gp-9q3p
CVSS 4.0
6.3 MediumCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
CVSS 3.1
3.1 LowCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N
Weakness
CWE-601
Updated
2026-11-02
NVD 3.1

Synapse is a Matrix reference homeserver written in python (pypi package matrix-synapse). Matrix is an ecosystem for open federated Instant Messaging and VoIP. In Synapse before version 1.25.0, requests to user provided domains were not restricted to external IP addresses when calculating the key validity for third-party invite events and sending push notifications. This could cause Synapse to make requests to internal infrastructure. The type of request was not controlled by the user, although limited modification of request bodies was possible. For the most thorough protection server administrators should remove the deprecated federation_ip_range_blacklist from their settings after upgrading to Synapse v1.25.0 which will result in Synapse using the improved default IP address restrictions. See the new ip_range_blacklist and ip_range_whitelist settings if more specific control is necessary.

Record
CVE-2021-21273
CVSS 3.1
3.1 LowCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N
CVSS 3.1
6.1 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
CVSS 2.0
5.8 MediumAV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:N
Weakness
CWE-601
Updated
2026-11-02
OSV 6.1

Synapse is a Matrix reference homeserver written in python (pypi package matrix-synapse). Matrix is an ecosystem for open federated Instant Messaging and VoIP. In Synapse before version 1.25.0, requests to user provided domains were not restricted to external IP addresses when calculating the key validity for third-party invite events and sending push notifications. This could cause Synapse to make requests to internal infrastructure. The type of request was not controlled by the user, although limited modification of request bodies was possible. For the most thorough protection server administrators should remove the deprecated federation_ip_range_blacklist from their settings after upgrading to Synapse v1.25.0 which will result in Synapse using the improved default IP address restrictions. See the new ip_range_blacklist and ip_range_whitelist settings if more specific control is necessary.

Record
CVE-2021-21273
CVSS 3.1
6.1 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVDEBIAN-CVE-2021-21273 6.1

Synapse is a Matrix reference homeserver written in python (pypi package matrix-synapse). Matrix is an ecosystem for open federated Instant Messaging and VoIP. In Synapse before version 1.25.0, requests to user provided domains were not restricted to external IP addresses when calculating the key validity for third-party invite events and sending push notifications. This could cause Synapse to make requests to internal infrastructure. The type of request was not controlled by the user, although limited modification of request bodies was possible. For the most thorough protection server administrators should remove the deprecated federation_ip_range_blacklist from their settings after upgrading to Synapse v1.25.0 which will result in Synapse using the improved default IP address restrictions. See the new ip_range_blacklist and ip_range_whitelist settings if more specific control is necessary.

Record
DEBIAN-CVE-2021-21273
CVSS 3.1
6.1 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVGHSA-v936-j8gp-9q3p 6.3

Open redirects on some federation and push requests

Impact

Requests to user provided domains were not restricted to external IP addresses when calculating the key validity for third-party invite events and sending push notifications. This could cause Synapse to make requests to internal infrastructure. The type of request was not controlled by the user, although limited modification of request bodies was possible.

For the most thorough protection server administrators should remove the deprecated federation_ip_range_blacklist from their settings after upgrading to Synapse v1.25.0 which will result in Synapse using the improved default IP address restrictions. See the new ip_range_blacklist and ip_range_whitelist settings if more specific control is necessary.

Patches

Issue is resolved by #8821. Further improvements to protect homeservers by default were made in #8870 and #8954.

Workarounds

Requests to internal IP addresses could be blocked at the system or network level.

Record
GHSA-v936-j8gp-9q3p
CVSS 4.0
6.3 MediumCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
CVSS 3.1
3.1 LowCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N
Weakness
CWE-601
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVUBUNTU-CVE-2021-21273 3.1

Synapse is a Matrix reference homeserver written in python (pypi package matrix-synapse). Matrix is an ecosystem for open federated Instant Messaging and VoIP. In Synapse before version 1.25.0, requests to user provided domains were not restricted to external IP addresses when calculating the key validity for third-party invite events and sending push notifications. This could cause Synapse to make requests to internal infrastructure. The type of request was not controlled by the user, although limited modification of request bodies was possible. For the most thorough protection server administrators should remove the deprecated federation_ip_range_blacklist from their settings after upgrading to Synapse v1.25.0 which will result in Synapse using the improved default IP address restrictions. See the new ip_range_blacklist and ip_range_whitelist settings if more specific control is necessary.

Record
UBUNTU-CVE-2021-21273
CVSS 3.1
3.1 LowCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N
CVSS 3.1
6.1 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVPYSEC-2021-131 No score

Synapse is a Matrix reference homeserver written in python (pypi package matrix-synapse). Matrix is an ecosystem for open federated Instant Messaging and VoIP. In Synapse before version 1.25.0, requests to user provided domains were not restricted to external IP addresses when calculating the key validity for third-party invite events and sending push notifications. This could cause Synapse to make requests to internal infrastructure. The type of request was not controlled by the user, although limited modification of request bodies was possible. For the most thorough protection server administrators should remove the deprecated federation_ip_range_blacklist from their settings after upgrading to Synapse v1.25.0 which will result in Synapse using the improved default IP address restrictions. See the new ip_range_blacklist and ip_range_whitelist settings if more specific control is necessary.

Record
PYSEC-2021-131
Updated
2026-11-02

Affected products

Affected packages

Affected packages
PackageAffectedFixed
matrix-synapse
PyPI
 before 1.25.0
1.25.0
matrix-synapse
PyPI
 before 1.25.0, plus listed versions
0.33.50.33.5.10.33.60.33.6rc10.33.7
Show 45 moreShow less
0.33.7rc10.33.7rc20.33.80.33.8rc20.33.90.34.00.34.0.10.34.0rc10.34.0rc20.34.1.10.99.00.99.0rc10.99.0rc20.99.0rc30.99.0rc40.99.10.99.1.10.99.1rc10.99.1rc20.99.20.99.2rc10.99.30.99.3.10.99.3.20.99.3rc10.99.40.99.4rc10.99.50.99.5.10.99.5.20.99.5rc11.0.01.0.0rc11.0.0rc21.0.0rc31.1.01.1.0rc11.1.0rc21.10.01.10.0rc11.10.0rc21.10.0rc31.10.0rc51.10.11.11.0
1.25.0
matrix-synapse
Ubuntu:Pro:18.04:LTS
 All versions, plus listed versions
0.19.2+dfsg-60.24.0+dfsg-10.24.0+dfsg-1ubuntu0.1~esm10.24.0+dfsg-1ubuntu0.1~esm4
 None known
matrix-synapse
Ubuntu:Pro:20.04:LTS
 All versions, plus listed versions
1.3.0-11.4.0-11.5.0-11.5.1-11.6.0-1
Show 12 moreShow less
1.6.1-11.7.0-21.7.1-11.7.2-11.7.3-11.8.0-11.9.0-11.9.1-11.10.0-11.10.0-21.11.0-11.11.0-1ubuntu0.1~esm2
 None known

History

History
RecordedChangedSources
affected
aliases, productsEUVD
first indexedCVE List, GitHub Advisories, NVD, OSV

Dates are when Every CVE recorded each change. Upstream dates may differ.

In short

CVE-2021-21273 is a low vulnerability (CVSS 3.1) in Element-hq Synapse, published February 26, 2021. No source lists public exploit code. EPSS puts the chance of exploitation in the next 30 days at 1.80%, the 78th percentile. Fixed in matrix-synapse 1.25.0.

References

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Left out here: 93 versions. The JSON record has them.

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