Unauthenticated rate-limit bypass via spoofed proxy headers
Published Nov 18, 2024 · Updated Nov 19, 2024
Rate-limit bypass in Mastodon 4.1.x before 4.1.17 and 4.2.x before 4.2.9 allows remote attackers to evade API throttling via proxy headers. Rails RemoteIp trusts the closest X-Forwarded-For or Client-Ip value, while rack-attack exempts the spoofable loopback address from most limits. Exploitation requires direct access to Puma through a misconfigured proxy path and enables automated credential guessing and false source addresses in logs.
Summary
What happened
Rate-limit bypass in Mastodon 4.1.x before 4.1.17 and 4.2.x before 4.2.9 allows remote attackers to evade API throttling via proxy headers. Rails RemoteIp trusts the closest X-Forwarded-For or Client-Ip value, while rack-attack exempts the spoofable loopback address from most limits. Exploitation requires direct access to Puma through a misconfigured proxy path and enables automated credential guessing and false source addresses in logs.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2023-49952
- Published
- Nov 18, 2024
- Updated
- Nov 19, 2024
- Vendor
- Mastodon
- Product
- Mastodon
- Classifications
- CWE-79, CWE-307, T1110
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Nov 18, 2024CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Nov 19, 2024Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=0 <4.1.17
- Affected versionversion=0 <4.2.9
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
No public exploit references are available in this record.
Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.
Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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