Unauthenticated rate-limit bypass via spoofed forwarded headers
Published Oct 6, 2025 · Updated Oct 6, 2025
Rate-limit bypass in Litestar 2.17.0 allows remote attackers to evade request quotas via spoofed X-Forwarded-For headers. RateLimitMiddleware.cache_key_from_request() unconditionally incorporates X-Forwarded-For or X-Real-IP into the cache key, so each attacker-selected value creates a fresh quota bucket. Any network-reachable application using RateLimitMiddleware's default identifier is exposed, allowing sustained API abuse and resource consumption without authentication.
Summary
What happened
Rate-limit bypass in Litestar 2.17.0 allows remote attackers to evade request quotas via spoofed X-Forwarded-For headers. RateLimitMiddleware.cache_key_from_request() unconditionally incorporates X-Forwarded-For or X-Real-IP into the cache key, so each attacker-selected value creates a fresh quota bucket. Any network-reachable application using RateLimitMiddleware's default identifier is exposed, allowing sustained API abuse and resource consumption without authentication.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2025-59152
- Published
- Oct 6, 2025
- Updated
- Oct 6, 2025
- Vendor
- Litestar
- Product
- Litestar
- Classifications
- CWE-807, T1499.003
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Oct 6, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Oct 6, 2025Record 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== 2.17.0
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.
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
- Upstream X-Forwarded-For rate-limit bypass reproductionproof of concept · demonstrated
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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