matrix-org / matrix-org/matrix-spec

Room events arrive faster than to-device messages during federation connectivity problems, causing decryption failures

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Description

Suppose server A is struggling to send federation traffic to server B. (This might be because B is slow, is having connectivity problems, or there is just a huge queue of traffic.)

In this situation, B will often still receive encrypted messages from A: they may be pulled in from other servers in the room. However, the keys to these messages will be stuck in a queue on A. Users on B therefore see decryption errors.

ref https://github.com/vector-im/element-web/issues/3754

Contributor guide

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First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
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Research direction

Start by tracing the federation connectivity scenario described in the issue and read the linked Element Web issue for context. No file, test, or entry point is named; before coding, clarify the intended Matrix protocol change and define how successful delivery and decryption should be verified.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Domain
cryptography, distributed-systems
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
25/100

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