diff --git a/changelog.d/9145.bugfix b/changelog.d/9145.bugfix
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..947cf1dc25
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog.d/9145.bugfix
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Fix "UnboundLocalError: local variable 'length' referenced before assignment" errors when the response body exceeds the expected size. This bug was introduced in v1.25.0.
diff --git a/synapse/http/client.py b/synapse/http/client.py
index df498c8645..37ccf5ab98 100644
--- a/synapse/http/client.py
+++ b/synapse/http/client.py
@@ -724,7 +724,7 @@ class SimpleHttpClient:
read_body_with_max_size(response, output_stream, max_size)
)
except BodyExceededMaxSize:
- SynapseError(
+ raise SynapseError(
502,
"Requested file is too large > %r bytes" % (max_size,),
Codes.TOO_LARGE,
diff --git a/synapse/http/matrixfederationclient.py b/synapse/http/matrixfederationclient.py
index b7103d6541..19293bf673 100644
--- a/synapse/http/matrixfederationclient.py
+++ b/synapse/http/matrixfederationclient.py
@@ -996,7 +996,7 @@ class MatrixFederationHttpClient:
logger.warning(
"{%s} [%s] %s", request.txn_id, request.destination, msg,
)
- SynapseError(502, msg, Codes.TOO_LARGE)
+ raise SynapseError(502, msg, Codes.TOO_LARGE)
except Exception as e:
logger.warning(
"{%s} [%s] Error reading response: %s",
|