CVSS VectorNVD
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
Lifecycle Timeline
5DescriptionNVD
Summary
A vulnerability in Fleet's IP extraction logic allows unauthenticated attackers to bypass API rate limiting by spoofing client IP headers. This may allow brute-force login attempts or other abuse against Fleet instances exposed to the public internet.
Impact
Fleet extracted client IP addresses from request headers (True-Client-IP, X-Real-IP, X-Forwarded-For) without validating that those headers originate from a trusted proxy. The extracted IP is used as the key for rate limiting and IP ban decisions.
As a result, an attacker could rotate the value of these headers on each request, causing Fleet to treat each attempt as coming from a different client. This effectively bypasses per-IP rate limits on sensitive endpoints such as the login API, enabling unrestricted brute-force or credential stuffing attacks.
This issue primarily affects Fleet instances that are directly exposed to the internet without a reverse proxy that overwrites forwarded-IP headers. Instances behind a properly configured proxy or WAF are less affected.
Workarounds
If an immediate upgrade is not possible, administrators should ensure Fleet is deployed behind a reverse proxy (e.g., nginx, Cloudflare, AWS ALB) that overwrites X-Forwarded-For with the true client IP, and apply rate limiting at the proxy or WAF layer.
For more information
If you have any questions or comments about this advisory: Email us at [security@fleetdm.com](mailto:security@fleetdm.com) Join #fleet in osquery Slack
Credits
We thank @fuzzztf for responsibly reporting this issue.
AnalysisAI
Fleet instances fail to validate the origin of client IP headers (True-Client-IP, X-Real-IP, X-Forwarded-For) before using them for API rate limiting, allowing unauthenticated attackers to bypass per-IP brute-force protections on sensitive endpoints such as login by rotating header values across requests. This vulnerability primarily affects Fleet deployments directly exposed to the internet without a reverse proxy that overwrites forwarded headers; instances behind properly configured proxies or WAFs have reduced exposure.
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External POC / Exploit Code
Leaving vuln.today
EUVD-2026-30416
GHSA-mxmp-wr3w-rvqx