CVE-2025-59152X-Forwarded-For Header Spoofing Bypasses Litestar Rate Limiting
- 7.5HighCVSS base score
- 0.48%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 58% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- YesPublic exploitsa reference or SSVC says so
Description
Litestar is an Asynchronous Server Gateway Interface (ASGI) framework. In version 2.17.0, rate limits can be completely bypassed by manipulating the X-Forwarded-For header. This renders IP-based rate limiting ineffective against determined attackers. Litestar's RateLimitMiddleware uses `cache_key_from_request()` to generate cache keys for rate limiting. When an X-Forwarded-For header is present, the middleware trusts it unconditionally and uses its value as part of the client identifier. Since clients can set arbitrary X-Forwarded-For values, each different spoofed IP creates a separate rate limit bucket. An attacker can rotate through different header values to avoid hitting any single bucket's limit. This affects any Litestar application using RateLimitMiddleware with default settings, which likely includes most applications that implement rate limiting. Version 2.18.0 contains a patch for the vulnerability.
Public exploit
An exploit or proof of concept is public: anyone can try it against an unpatched system. CISA's SSVC rates its exploitation: a proof of concept is public.
Timeline
ID reserved
By GitHub_M
- 27 days later
· 27 days later
Published
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub_MCNA (assigner) | 3.1 | High7.5 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H |
| NVDNVD · Deferred | 3.1 | High7.5 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.48% · top 58% of all CVEs (13 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: poc · Automatable: yes · Technical impact: partial
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: High 7.5.
Affected products
- affected = 2.17.0
Affected packages
From reviewed advisories of the GitHub Advisory Database.
- PyPIlitestarGHSA-hm36-ffrh-c77c (opens in a new tab)
References
References3
- https://github.com/litestar-org/litestar/security/advisories/GHSA-hm36-ffrh-c77c (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRM
- https://github.com/litestar-org/litestar/commit/42a89e043e50b515f8548a93954fe143f63cf9fb (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/litestar-org/litestar/blob/26f20ac6c52de2b4bf81161f7560c8bb4af6f382/litestar/middleware/rate_limit.py#L127 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISC
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2025-32146 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisory GHSA-hm36-ffrh-c77c (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2025-59152)Record last updated .