CVE-2024-36403: matrix-media-repo (MMR) allows denial of service/high operating costs through unauthenticated downloads

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.

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.