Vulnerability · Published Oct 6, 2025 · Assigned by GitHub_M
CVE-2025-59152X-Forwarded-For Header Spoofing Bypasses Litestar Rate Limiting
High 7.5
In plain English
A high-severity security flaw in litestar from litestar-org. Proof-of-concept exploit code is public. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.5% (higher than 42% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.
Official 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.
Affected packages & fixed versions
| Ecosystem | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| PyPI | litestar | 2.18.0 | GHSA-hm36-ffrh-c77c |
| PyPI | litestar | 2.18.0 | PYSEC-2026-1553 |
Affected products (as reported)
| Vendor | Product | Versions |
|---|---|---|
| litestar-org | litestar | = 2.17.0 |
Weakness: CWE-807 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
References
- https://github.com/litestar-org/litestar/security/advisories/GHSA-hm36-ffrh-c77c x_refsource_CONFIRM
- https://github.com/litestar-org/litestar/commit/42a89e043e50b515f8548a93954fe143f63cf9fb x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/litestar-org/litestar/blob/26f20ac6c52de2b4bf81161f7560c8bb4af6f382/litestar/middleware/rate_limit.py#L127 x_refsource_MISC