CVE-2025-59152 X-Forwarded-For Header Spoofing Bypasses Litestar Rate Limiting
Attackers can bypass IP-based rate limiting in Litestar applications by spoofing the X-Forwarded-For header, allowing unlimited requests.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2025-59152?
CVE-2025-59152 is a high-severity vulnerability in litestar-org litestar, published on 6 Oct 2025. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
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.
Weakness: CWE-807
Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-59152?
3 open source packages ship an affected version, including litestar.
| Package | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
litestar PyPI | From 2.17.0 | 2.18.0 |
litestar PyPI | From 2.17.0 | 2.18.0 |
litestar PyPI | From 2.17.0 | 2.18.0 |
How do I fix CVE-2025-59152?
Upgrade litestar to 2.18.0 or later.
Is CVE-2025-59152 being exploited?
It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2025-59152 exists.
Sources
Also known as GHSA-hm36-ffrh-c77c, PYSEC-2026-1553.