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Lemmy CVE-2026-54738

| EUVDEUVD-2026-62850 MEDIUM
Improper Control of Interaction Frequency (CWE-799)
2026-08-19 GitHub_M
6.5
CVSS 3.1 · Vendor: GitHub_M
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Severity by source

Vendor (GitHub_M) PRIMARY
6.5 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:L
vuln.today AI
6.5 MEDIUM

Network-reachable with no authentication or complexity; no confidentiality impact; integrity and availability both Low from spam and resource abuse.

3.1 AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:L
4.0 AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

Primary rating from Vendor (GitHub_M).

CVSS VectorVendor: GitHub_M

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:L
Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
Low
Availability
Low

Lifecycle Timeline

3
Patch available
Aug 19, 2026 - 21:17 EUVD
Source Code Evidence Fetched
Aug 19, 2026 - 21:14 vuln.today
Analysis Generated
Aug 19, 2026 - 21:14 vuln.today

DescriptionCVE.org

Lemmy is a link aggregator and forum for the fediverse. Prior to 0.19.19 and 1.0.0-beta.1, actix-web ConnectionInfo::realip_remote_addr reads the first value of X-Forwarded-For as the client address used by raw_ip_key in crates/utils/src/rate_limit/mod.rs. Lemmy's bundled docker/nginx.conf uses $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for instead of $remote_addr, which appends the real client address to an X-Forwarded-For value supplied by the client. An unauthenticated attacker can therefore place a different spoofed address first on each request and receive a new rate-limit bucket, bypassing limits on POST /api/v4/account/auth/register, POST /api/v4/account/auth/login, POST /api/v4/post, POST /api/v4/comment, GET /api/v4/search, POST /api/v4/image, and POST /api/v4/account/import_settings. This permits excessive account creation, brute-force attempts, spam, scraping, uploads, and repeated imports. This issue is fixed in versions 0.19.19 and 1.0.0-beta.1.

AnalysisAI

Rate limit bypass in Lemmy prior to 0.19.19 and 1.0.0-beta.1 allows unauthenticated remote attackers to circumvent all IP-based throttling by injecting a spoofed address as the first value of the X-Forwarded-For header. Because the bundled docker/nginx.conf forwards XFF headers using $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for rather than $remote_addr, attackers control the address that actix-web's ConnectionInfo::realip_remote_addr reads, receiving a fresh rate-limit bucket per request. …

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Attack ChainAIDerived

Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata

Access
Craft request with spoofed first XFF IP
Delivery
Send to rate-limited Lemmy API endpoint
Exploit
nginx appends real IP but passes spoofed first value
Execution
actix-web reads spoofed IP as client identity
Persist
Rate limiter allocates fresh bucket
Impact
Repeat with new spoofed IP to execute spam, brute-force, or scraping at scale

Vulnerability AssessmentAI

Exploitation Exploitation requires that the target Lemmy instance is deployed using the bundled docker/nginx.conf or docker/federation/nginx.conf with the unpatched $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for directive - this is the default Docker deployment shipped with Lemmy. … Additional conditions and limiting factors are described in the full assessment.
Risk Assessment The CVSS 3.1 vector AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:L (6.5 Medium) accurately reflects the attack surface: fully remote, no authentication, trivially low complexity. … Full risk analysis with EPSS, KEV, and SSVC signal comparison available after sign-in.
Exploit Scenario An attacker targeting a Lemmy instance running the default Docker deployment sends POST /api/v4/account/auth/register requests in a loop, each carrying a distinct spoofed first value in the X-Forwarded-For header (e.g., incrementing through 1.0.0.1, 1.0.0.2, …). Nginx appends the real IP but the rate limiter keys on the injected value, granting a fresh bucket for every request. …
Remediation Upgrade to Lemmy 0.19.19 (stable) or 1.0.0-beta.1 (beta), which replace the nginx XFF directive with 'proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $remote_addr' in both docker/nginx.conf and docker/federation/nginx.conf, as confirmed in commits 41513c89 and 8b5b2aa7 and PRs #6574 and #6575. … Detailed patch versions, workarounds, and compensating controls in full report.

Threat intelligence, references, and detailed analysis are available after sign-in.

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CVE-2026-54738 vulnerability details – vuln.today

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