CVE-2021-21274

Denial of service attack via .well-known lookups

MEDIUM
6.5
CVSS Score
Published: February 26, 2021 at 05:25 PM UTC
Updated: June 17, 2026 at 03:35 AM UTC
3 products affected across 3 vendorsFedoraSynapseSynapse

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Severity
MEDIUM6.5
Exploit prediction
EPSS 2%

Description

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, a malicious homeserver could redirect requests to their .well-known file to a large file. This can lead to a denial of service attack where homeservers will consume significantly more resources when requesting the .well-known file of a malicious homeserver. This affects any server which accepts federation requests from untrusted servers. Issue is resolved in version 1.25.0. As a workaround the `federation_domain_whitelist` setting can be used to restrict the homeservers communicated with over federation.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

0.99.0 ≤ v < 1.25.0
Affected range stops below 1.25.0, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
v < 1.25.0
Affected range stops below 1.25.0, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement

CVSS

Attack Vector
NETWORK
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
NONE
User Interaction
REQUIRED
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
NONE
Integrity
NONE
Availability
HIGH
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusMODIFIED
CWE
CWE-400CWE-770

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