CVE-2021-39163

Adding a private/unlisted room to a community exposes room metadata in an unauthorised manner.

LOW
3.1
CVSS Score
Published: August 31, 2021 at 04:00 PM UTC
Updated: June 17, 2026 at 04:03 AM UTC
3 products affected across 3 vendorsFedoraSynapseSynapse

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Severity
LOW3.1
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.9%

Description

Matrix is an ecosystem for open federated Instant Messaging and Voice over IP. In versions 1.41.0 and prior, unauthorised users can access the name, avatar, topic and number of members of a room if they know the ID of the room. This vulnerability is limited to homeservers where the vulnerable homeserver is in the room and untrusted users are permitted to create groups (communities). By default, only homeserver administrators can create groups. However, homeserver administrators can already access this information in the database or using the admin API. As a result, only homeservers where the configuration setting `enable_group_creation` has been set to `true` are impacted. Server administrators should upgrade to 1.41.1 or higher to patch the vulnerability. There are two potential workarounds. Server administrators can set `enable_group_creation` to `false` in their homeserver configuration (this is the default value) to prevent creation of groups by non-administrators. Administrators that are using a reverse proxy could, with partial loss of group functionality, block the endpoints `/_matrix/client/r0/groups/{group_id}/rooms` and `/_matrix/client/unstable/groups/{group_id}/rooms`.

Affected

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

v < 1.41.1
Affected range stops below 1.41.1, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
v < 1.41.1
Affected range stops below 1.41.1, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement

CVSS

3.1LOWGitHub_M
Attack Vector
NETWORK
Complexity
HIGH
Privileges
LOW
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
LOW
Integrity
NONE
Availability
NONE
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusMODIFIED
CWE
CWE-200CWE-863

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