CVE-2021-39163

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

Published Aug 31, 2021 CVSS 3.1 · 3.1 Low EPSS < 1% KEV · Not listed
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`.

Remediation

No solution or workaround provided in the CVE record

Tracking

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Advisories

Source ID Title
EUVD EUVD EUVD-2021-0131 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`.
Github GHSA Github GHSA GHSA-jj53-8fmw-f2w2 Adding a private/unlisted room to a community exposes room metadata in an unauthorised manner.
History

No history.

Weaknesses

Sources

Status
PUBLISHED
Assigner
GitHub_M
Published
Updated
Aug 4, 2024, 1:58 AM
Reserved
Aug 16, 2021, 12:00 AM
Status
Modified
Published
Aug 31, 2021, 4:15 PM
Modified
Jun 17, 2026, 4:03 AM