Mail bombing and brute-force bypass via spoofed headers
Published Aug 20, 2026 · Updated Aug 20, 2026
Rate-limit bypass in Monkeytype 26.26.0 and earlier allows remote attackers to send repeated account emails via spoofed IP headers. In backend/src/middlewares/rate-limit.ts, getKey() trusts cf-connecting-ip and x-forwarded-for before the trust-proxy-derived req.ip value, so attacker-supplied header changes create fresh limiter buckets for rootRateLimiter, badAuthRateLimiter, and the getKeyWithUid() fallback. No authentication or user interaction is required; direct-to-origin or misconfigured proxy paths can enable mail bombing, quota exhaustion, and removal of brute-force throttling on public endpoints.
Summary
What happened
Rate-limit bypass in Monkeytype 26.26.0 and earlier allows remote attackers to send repeated account emails via spoofed IP headers. In backend/src/middlewares/rate-limit.ts, getKey() trusts cf-connecting-ip and x-forwarded-for before the trust-proxy-derived req.ip value, so attacker-supplied header changes create fresh limiter buckets for rootRateLimiter, badAuthRateLimiter, and the getKeyWithUid() fallback. No authentication or user interaction is required; direct-to-origin or misconfigured proxy paths can enable mail bombing, quota exhaustion, and removal of brute-force throttling on public endpoints.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-69183
- Published
- Aug 20, 2026
- Updated
- Aug 20, 2026
- Vendor
- Monkeytype
- Product
- Monkeytype
- Classifications
- CWE-307, CWE-644, CWE-290, T1499, T1110
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Aug 20, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Aug 20, 2026Record 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=<= 26.26.0
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
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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