Database error, "currently_active" is of type boolean but expression is of type integer

[shaohme]

Description

My homeserver logs and postgres logs shows errors regarding "currently_active" not being a correct type. I'm not sure if this has any grave effects on my system, but it worries me to see.

Steps to reproduce

• Run version 1.140 or perhaps previous to 1.138
• Observe the logs

Homeserver

lagy.org

Synapse Version

1.140.0

Installation Method

Other (please mention below)

Database

apk add synapse

Workers

Single process

Platform

Alpine Linux 3.22.2

Configuration

Nothing unusual to my knowledge

Relevant log output

Too much log text to paste here. See log files below.

Anything else that would be useful to know?

homeserver.log
postgres.log

[anoadragon453]

My guess is a m.presence event coming in over federation containing a non-boolean field:

2025-10-14 18:42:54,961 - synapse.federation.transport.server.federation - 116 - INFO - PUT-3065 - Received txn 1760464765132 from kty.sh. (PDUs: 0, EDUs: 1)
2025-10-14 18:42:54,967 - synapse.federation.federation_server - 589 - ERROR - PUT-3065 - Error handling EDU of type m.presence
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python3.12/site-packages/synapse/federation/federation_server.py", line 577, in _process_edu
    await self.registry.on_edu(edu.edu_type, origin, edu.content)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.12/site-packages/synapse/federation/federation_server.py", line 1471, in on_edu
    await handler(origin, content)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.12/site-packages/synapse/handlers/presence.py", line 1395, in incoming_presence
    await self._update_states(updates)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.12/site-packages/synapse/handlers/presence.py", line 1034, in _update_states
    await self._persist_and_notify(list(to_notify.values()))
  File "/usr/lib/python3.12/site-packages/synapse/handlers/presence.py", line 1328, in _persist_and_notify
    stream_id, max_token = await self.store.update_presence(states)
                           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3.12/site-packages/synapse/storage/databases/main/presence.py", line 132, in update_presence
    await self.db_pool.runInteraction(
  File "/usr/lib/python3.12/site-packages/synapse/storage/database.py", line 999, in runInteraction
    return await delay_cancellation(_runInteraction())
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3.12/site-packages/twisted/internet/defer.py", line 1183, in __iter__
    yield self
  File "/usr/lib/python3.12/site-packages/twisted/internet/defer.py", line 2013, in _inlineCallbacks
    result = context.run(
             ^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3.12/site-packages/twisted/python/failure.py", line 467, in throwExceptionIntoGenerator
    return g.throw(self.value.with_traceback(self.tb))
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3.12/site-packages/synapse/storage/database.py", line 965, in _runInteraction
    result: R = await self.runWithConnection(
                ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3.12/site-packages/synapse/storage/database.py", line 1099, in runWithConnection
    return await make_deferred_yieldable(
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3.12/site-packages/twisted/internet/defer.py", line 1183, in __iter__
    yield self
  File "/usr/lib/python3.12/site-packages/twisted/python/threadpool.py", line 269, in inContext
    result = inContext.theWork()  # type: ignore[attr-defined]
             ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3.12/site-packages/twisted/python/threadpool.py", line 285, in <lambda>
    inContext.theWork = lambda: context.call(  # type: ignore[attr-defined]
                                ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3.12/site-packages/twisted/python/context.py", line 117, in callWithContext
    return self.currentContext().callWithContext(ctx, func, *args, **kw)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3.12/site-packages/twisted/python/context.py", line 82, in callWithContext
    return func(*args, **kw)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3.12/site-packages/twisted/enterprise/adbapi.py", line 282, in _runWithConnection
    result = func(conn, *args, **kw)
             ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3.12/site-packages/synapse/storage/database.py", line 1092, in inner_func
    return func(db_conn, *args, **kwargs)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3.12/site-packages/synapse/storage/database.py", line 821, in new_transaction
    r = func(cursor, *args, **kwargs)
        ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3.12/site-packages/synapse/storage/databases/main/presence.py", line 164, in _update_presence_txn
    self.db_pool.simple_insert_many_txn(
  File "/usr/lib/python3.12/site-packages/synapse/storage/database.py", line 1246, in simple_insert_many_txn
    txn.execute_values(sql, values, fetch=False)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.12/site-packages/synapse/storage/database.py", line 452, in execute_values
    return self._do_execute(
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3.12/site-packages/synapse/storage/database.py", line 525, in _do_execute
    return func(sql, *args, **kwargs)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3.12/site-packages/synapse/storage/database.py", line 455, in <lambda>
    lambda the_sql, the_values: execute_values(
                                ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3.12/site-packages/psycopg2/extras.py", line 1299, in execute_values
    cur.execute(b''.join(parts))
psycopg2.errors.DatatypeMismatch: column "currently_active" is of type boolean but expression is of type integer
LINE 1: ...y.sh','online',1760467362638,1760467374963,0,NULL,1,'master'...
                                                             ^
HINT:  You will need to rewrite or cast the expression.

As of writing, kty.sh is running Synapse 1.139.2.

We should update Synapse to validate the shape of presence events from other homeservers and reject them if the field types are invalid.