Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:LSummary
CVE-2024-36403 is a medium-severity Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling (CWE-770) vulnerability in T2Bot Matrix-Media-Repo. Its CVSS base score is 5.3 (Medium).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Network Denial of Service (T1498); ranked at the 50th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to AC-10 (Concurrent Session Control) and SC-6 (Resource Availability) — see the control section below for these in your framework.
Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary
Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.
CVE-2024-36403 is an unbounded disk consumption vulnerability (CWE-770, CVSS 5.3; AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L) in Matrix Media Repo (MMR), a highly configurable multi-homeserver media repository for Matrix. Versions of MMR prior to 1.3.5 are affected, particularly those using a file-backed store or self-hosting an S3-like storage backend, as an unauthenticated adversary can induce the repository to download and cache large volumes of remote media files without bounds.
An unauthenticated attacker can exploit this remotely with low complexity by repeatedly requesting large remote media files, causing MMR to fetch and store them. In file-backed or self-hosted S3 environments, this fills the disk, preventing authenticated users from uploading new media and resulting in denial of service. Deployments using cloud-based S3 storage avoid disk exhaustion but risk incurring high service fees from excessive data storage.
The GitHub security advisory for MMR recommends upgrading to version 1.3.5, which introduces a default-on "leaky bucket" rate limit to curb the volume of data an unauthenticated user can request at once, though this is not a complete fix. Proper operation requires reverse proxies to populate the X-Forwarded-For header to ensure rate limiting applies to the client IP rather than the proxy. As interim mitigations, operators unable to update should reduce maximum file sizes and enforce strict rate limits, despite potential for significant data accumulation.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2025-0105
Vulnerability Data
Matrix Media Repo (MMR) is a highly configurable multi-homeserver media repository for Matrix. MMR before version 1.3.5 is vulnerable to unbounded disk consumption, where an unauthenticated adversary can induce it to download and cache large amounts of remote media files.…
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MMR's typical operating environment uses S3-like storage as a backend, with file-backed store as an alternative option. Instances using a file-backed store or those which self-host an S3 storage system are therefore vulnerable to a disk fill attack. Once the disk is full, authenticated users will be unable to upload new media, resulting in denial of service. For instances configured to use a cloud-based S3 storage option, this could result in high service fees instead of a denial of service. MMR 1.3.5 introduces a new default-on "leaky bucket" rate limit to reduce the amount of data a user can request at a time. This does not fully address the issue, but does limit an unauthenticated user's ability to request large amounts of data. Operators should note that the leaky bucket implementation introduced in MMR 1.3.5 requires the IP address associated with the request to be forwarded, to avoid mistakenly applying the rate limit to the reverse proxy instead. To avoid this issue, the reverse proxy should populate the X-Forwarded-For header when sending the request to MMR. Operators who cannot update may wish to lower the maximum file size they allow and implement harsh rate limits, though this can still lead to a large amount of data to be downloaded.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
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- 5 hardening rules · 3 OS baselines
V15.4.4
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Directly enforces a hard limit on concurrent sessions, structurally preventing unbounded resource allocation.
Requires explicit allocation of resources by priority or quota, directly stopping unlimited allocation.
Imposes a limit on consecutive invalid attempts, preventing one specific class of unbounded resource consumption.
Reduces impact of resulting DoS events without preventing the underlying lack of allocation limits.
Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Monitoring capacity and taking action to maintain availability directly reduces unchecked resource allocation.
Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Baseline comparison of CPU, memory and bandwidth usage helps surface uncontrolled resource allocations before they cause service degradation.
Capacity projections and elasticity measures ensure that allocation requests are bounded and can be throttled, reducing the window in which an attacker can force unbounded resource reservations.
Defining retention periods and deletion schedules for backup copies prevents indefinite accumulation of data on storage media without corresponding resource-management controls.
Architectural redundancy and automatic failover limit the impact of an attacker who forces excessive allocations, because spare capacity can absorb the load until the primary instance recovers.
Documented incident response procedures that include activation of continuity plans and controlled recovery help ensure that resource consumption triggered by an incident is bounded and managed rather than left unbounded.
Mandating tested continuity procedures that preserve or replace resource-limiting controls prevents an attacker from exploiting the absence of throttling mechanisms during an outage.
Hardening callouts derived
Configuration rules from DISA STIG baselines that bear on weaknesses of the type cited by this CVE. Each rule is shown with the relationship its mapping actually records, against the CWE it was authored against. Derived via CVE→CWE over `controls_xwalks` (authoritative rows only; rows rated `none` are excluded).
Oracle Linux 8 (2 rules)
- V-248552 OL 8 must be configured so that all network connections associated with SSH traffic terminate after becoming unresponsive. prevents CWE-770
- V-248553 OL 8 must be configured so that all network connections associated with SSH traffic are terminated after 10 minutes of becoming unresponsive. prevents CWE-770
Oracle Linux 9 (2 rules)
- V-271710 OL 9 must be configured so that all network connections associated with SSH traffic are terminated after 10 minutes of becoming unresponsive. prevents CWE-770
- V-271709 OL 9 must be configured so that all network connections associated with SSH traffic terminate after becoming unresponsive. prevents CWE-770
RHEL 8 (1 rule)
- V-230244 RHEL 8 must be configured so that all network connections associated with SSH traffic terminate after becoming unresponsive. prevents CWE-770