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Temporary storage of plaintext passwords during password changes in matrix synapse

Type: advisorySources: OSV

Synapse is an open-source Matrix homeserver written and maintained by the Matrix.org Foundation. When users update their passwords, the new credentials may be briefly held in the server database. While this doesn't grant the server any added capabilities—it already learns the users' passwords as part of the authentication process—it does disrupt the expectation that passwords won't be stored in the database. As a result, these passwords could inadvertently be captured in database backups for a longer duration. These temporarily stored passwords are automatically erased after a 48-hour window. This issue has been addressed in version 1.93.0. Users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this issue.

Products
Not specified
Affected versions
Not specified
Fixed versions
Not specified
CVEs
CVE-2023-41335
Confirmed fixed CVEs
Not specified
Updated in this feed
7 Nov 2026, 02:33 UTC · Revision 1

Source evidence

Temporary storage of plaintext passwords during password changes in matrix synapse

core-osv · Original source

Published 26 Sept 2023, 20:51 UTC

Synapse is an open-source Matrix homeserver written and maintained by the Matrix.org Foundation. When users update their passwords, the new credentials may be briefly held in the server database. While this doesn't grant the server any added capabilities—it already learns the users' passwords as part of the authentication process—it does disrupt the expectation that passwords won't be stored in the database. As a result, these passwords could inadvertently be captured in database backups for a longer duration. These temporarily stored passwords are automatically erased after a 48-hour window. This issue has been addressed in version 1.93.0. Users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this issue.

osv:CVE-2023-41335
Complete source record
{
  "id": "1ca39877472d8be8b72355c1e69952568c1f67e6a00fa27119e8770aeca301d7",
  "url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-41335",
  "method": "structured",
  "payload": {
    "kind": "advisory",
    "title": "Temporary storage of plaintext passwords during password changes in matrix synapse",
    "summary": "Synapse is an open-source Matrix homeserver written and maintained by the Matrix.org Foundation. When users update their passwords, the new credentials may be briefly held in the server database. While this doesn't grant the server any added capabilities—it already learns the users' passwords as part of the authentication process—it does disrupt the expectation that passwords won't be stored in the database. As a result, these passwords could inadvertently be captured in database backups for a longer duration. These temporarily stored passwords are automatically erased after a 48-hour window. This issue has been addressed in version 1.93.0. Users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this issue.",
    "evidence": "osv:CVE-2023-41335",
    "products": [],
    "severity": "low",
    "structured": {
      "id": "CVE-2023-41335",
      "aliases": [
        "CVE-2023-41335",
        "GHSA-4f74-84v3-j9q5",
        "PYSEC-2023-185"
      ],
      "metrics": [
        {
          "type": "CVSS_V3",
          "score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N"
        }
      ],
      "affected": [
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "repo": "https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse",
              "type": "GIT",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "6f80fe1e1bbb6cab3ce605b2023e0488e2d80d52"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "88ba67eb91215a708f321e16559fe3c2c0d0a407"
                }
              ],
              "database_specific": {
                "extracted_events": [
                  {
                    "range": [
                      {
                        "introduced": "1.66.0"
                      },
                      {
                        "fixed": "1.93.0"
                      }
                    ],
                    "source": "AFFECTED_FIELD",
                    "strategy": "StringRangeExpression"
                  },
                  {
                    "cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:matrix:synapse:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
                    "range": [
                      {
                        "introduced": "1.66.0"
                      },
                      {
                        "fixed": "1.93.0"
                      }
                    ],
                    "source": "CPE_RANGE"
                  }
                ]
              }
            }
          ],
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/osv-output/CVE-2023-41335.json"
          }
        }
      ],
      "modified": "2026-10-28T02:30:49.180230186Z",
      "provider": "osv",
      "references": [
        "https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/2AFB2Y3S2VCPCN5P2XCZTG24MBMZ7DM4/",
        "https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/65QPC55I4D27HIZP7H2NQ34EOXHPP4AO/",
        "https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/N6P4QULVUE254WI7XF2LWWOGHCYVFXFY/",
        "https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2023/41xxx/CVE-2023-41335.json",
        "https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/security/advisories/GHSA-4f74-84v3-j9q5",
        "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-41335",
        "https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202401-12",
        "https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/pull/16272"
      ],
      "provider_metadata": {
        "cwe_ids": [
          "CWE-312"
        ],
        "cna_assigner": "GitHub_M",
        "osv_generated_from": "https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2023/41xxx/CVE-2023-41335.json"
      }
    },
    "related_cves": [
      {
        "value": "CVE-2023-41335",
        "evidence": "/id"
      }
    ],
    "security_relevant": true,
    "severity_evidence": "/severity/0/score"
  },
  "source_id": "core-osv",
  "document_id": 517393,
  "published_at": "2023-09-26T20:51:29.741+00:00"
}