Using the synapse manhole ========================= The "manhole" allows server administrators to access a Python shell on a running Synapse installation. This is a very powerful mechanism for administration and debugging. **_Security Warning_** Note that this will give administrative access to synapse to **all users** with shell access to the server. It should therefore **not** be enabled in environments where untrusted users have shell access. ## Configuring the manhole To enable it, first uncomment the `manhole` listener configuration in `homeserver.yaml`. The configuration is slightly different if you're using docker. #### Docker config If you are using Docker, set `bind_addresses` to `['0.0.0.0']` as shown: ```yaml listeners: - port: 9000 bind_addresses: ['0.0.0.0'] type: manhole ``` When using `docker run` to start the server, you will then need to change the command to the following to include the `manhole` port forwarding. The `-p 127.0.0.1:9000:9000` below is important: it ensures that access to the `manhole` is only possible for local users. ```bash docker run -d --name synapse \ --mount type=volume,src=synapse-data,dst=/data \ -p 8008:8008 \ -p 127.0.0.1:9000:9000 \ matrixdotorg/synapse:latest ``` #### Native config If you are not using docker, set `bind_addresses` to `['::1', '127.0.0.1']` as shown. The `bind_addresses` in the example below is important: it ensures that access to the `manhole` is only possible for local users). ```yaml listeners: - port: 9000 bind_addresses: ['::1', '127.0.0.1'] type: manhole ``` ### Security settings The following config options are available: - `username` - The username for the manhole (defaults to `matrix`) - `password` - The password for the manhole (defaults to `rabbithole`) - `ssh_priv_key` - The path to a private SSH key (defaults to a hardcoded value) - `ssh_pub_key` - The path to a public SSH key (defaults to a hardcoded value) For example: ```yaml manhole_settings: username: manhole password: mypassword ssh_priv_key: "/home/synapse/manhole_keys/id_rsa" ssh_pub_key: "/home/synapse/manhole_keys/id_rsa.pub" ``` ## Accessing synapse manhole Then restart synapse, and point an ssh client at port 9000 on localhost, using the username and password configured in `homeserver.yaml` - with the default configuration, this would be: ```bash ssh -p9000 matrix@localhost ``` Then enter the password when prompted (the default is `rabbithole`). This gives a Python REPL in which `hs` gives access to the `synapse.server.HomeServer` object - which in turn gives access to many other parts of the process. Note that, prior to Synapse 1.41, any call which returns a coroutine will need to be wrapped in `ensureDeferred`. As a simple example, retrieving an event from the database: ```pycon >>> from twisted.internet import defer >>> defer.ensureDeferred(hs.get_datastores().main.get_event('$1416420717069yeQaw:matrix.org')) > ```