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High

Security advisory

Type: advisorySources: OSVCVE: CVE-2021-29430

Sydent is a reference Matrix identity server. Sydent does not limit the size of requests it receives from HTTP clients. A malicious user could send an HTTP request with a very large body, leading to memory exhaustion and denial of service. Sydent also does not limit response size for requests it makes to remote Matrix homeservers. A malicious homeserver could return a very large response, again leading to memory exhaustion and denial of service. This affects any server which accepts registration requests from untrusted clients. This issue has been patched by releases 89071a1, 0523511, f56eee3. As a workaround request sizes can be limited in an HTTP reverse-proxy. There are no known workarounds for the problem with overlarge responses.

Products
Not specified
Affected versions
Not specified
Fixed versions
Not specified
CVEs
CVE-2021-29430
Confirmed fixed CVEs
Not specified
Updated in this feed
31 Oct 2026, 11:44 UTC · Revision 1

Source evidence

CVE-2021-29430

core-osv · Original source

Published 15 Apr 2021, 21:15 UTC

Sydent is a reference Matrix identity server. Sydent does not limit the size of requests it receives from HTTP clients. A malicious user could send an HTTP request with a very large body, leading to memory exhaustion and denial of service. Sydent also does not limit response size for requests it makes to remote Matrix homeservers. A malicious homeserver could return a very large response, again leading to memory exhaustion and denial of service. This affects any server which accepts registration requests from untrusted clients. This issue has been patched by releases 89071a1, 0523511, f56eee3. As a workaround request sizes can be limited in an HTTP reverse-proxy. There are no known workarounds for the problem with overlarge responses.

osv:CVE-2021-29430
Complete source record
{
  "id": "b01b9d42a60842b826a99c3b6c8befa0172d76e05310a1248ed1623766b62b71",
  "url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2021-29430",
  "method": "structured",
  "payload": {
    "kind": "advisory",
    "title": "CVE-2021-29430",
    "summary": "Sydent is a reference Matrix identity server. Sydent does not limit the size of requests it receives from HTTP clients. A malicious user could send an HTTP request with a very large body, leading to memory exhaustion and denial of service. Sydent also does not limit response size for requests it makes to remote Matrix homeservers. A malicious homeserver could return a very large response, again leading to memory exhaustion and denial of service. This affects any server which accepts registration requests from untrusted clients. This issue has been patched by releases 89071a1, 0523511, f56eee3. As a workaround request sizes can be limited in an HTTP reverse-proxy. There are no known workarounds for the problem with overlarge responses.",
    "evidence": "osv:CVE-2021-29430",
    "products": [],
    "severity": "high",
    "structured": {
      "id": "CVE-2021-29430",
      "aliases": [
        "CVE-2021-29430",
        "GHSA-wmg4-8cp2-hpg9",
        "PYSEC-2021-21"
      ],
      "metrics": [
        {
          "type": "CVSS_V3",
          "score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H"
        }
      ],
      "affected": [
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "repo": "https://github.com/matrix-org/sydent",
              "type": "GIT",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "0"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "c2ab10897500dbba1c0d4be33f42985d81bbad7d"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "0523511d2fb40f2738f8a8549868f44b96e5dab7"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "89071a1a754c69a50deac89e6bb74002d4cda19d"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "f56eee315b6c44fdd9f6aa785cc2ec744a594428"
                }
              ],
              "database_specific": {
                "extracted_events": [
                  {
                    "cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:matrix:sydent:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
                    "range": [
                      {
                        "introduced": "0"
                      },
                      {
                        "fixed": "2.3.0"
                      }
                    ],
                    "source": "CPE_RANGE"
                  },
                  {
                    "range": [
                      {
                        "fixed": "0523511d2fb40f2738f8a8549868f44b96e5dab7"
                      }
                    ],
                    "source": "REFERENCES_COMMIT"
                  },
                  {
                    "range": [
                      {
                        "fixed": "89071a1a754c69a50deac89e6bb74002d4cda19d"
                      }
                    ],
                    "source": "REFERENCES_COMMIT"
                  },
                  {
                    "range": [
                      {
                        "fixed": "f56eee315b6c44fdd9f6aa785cc2ec744a594428"
                      }
                    ],
                    "source": "REFERENCES_COMMIT"
                  },
                  {
                    "range": [
                      {
                        "fixed": "c2ab10897500dbba1c0d4be33f42985d81bbad7d"
                      }
                    ],
                    "source": "REFERENCES_TAG",
                    "original_tag": "v2.3.0"
                  }
                ]
              }
            }
          ],
          "versions": [
            "fosdem_2021-01-15",
            "v2.2.0",
            "v2.1.0",
            "v2.0.1",
            "v2.0.0",
            "v1.0.3",
            "v1.0.1",
            "v1.0.2",
            "v1.0.0"
          ],
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/osv-output/CVE-2021-29430.json"
          }
        }
      ],
      "modified": "2026-10-20T10:54:37.135231150Z",
      "provider": "osv",
      "references": [
        "https://github.com/matrix-org/sydent/releases/tag/v2.3.0",
        "https://github.com/matrix-org/sydent/commit/0523511d2fb40f2738f8a8549868f44b96e5dab7",
        "https://github.com/matrix-org/sydent/commit/89071a1a754c69a50deac89e6bb74002d4cda19d",
        "https://github.com/matrix-org/sydent/commit/f56eee315b6c44fdd9f6aa785cc2ec744a594428",
        "https://github.com/matrix-org/sydent/security/advisories/GHSA-wmg4-8cp2-hpg9",
        "https://pypi.org/project/matrix-sydent/"
      ],
      "provider_metadata": {}
    },
    "related_cves": [
      {
        "value": "CVE-2021-29430",
        "evidence": "/id"
      }
    ],
    "security_relevant": true,
    "severity_evidence": "/severity/0/score"
  },
  "source_id": "core-osv",
  "document_id": 385752,
  "published_at": "2021-04-15T21:15:17.413+00:00"
}