Strapi up to 5.44.x /auth/local excessive authentication

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability labeled as problematic has been found in Strapi up to 5.44.x. Affected by this vulnerability is an unknown functionality of the file /auth/local. Such manipulation leads to excessive authentication. This vulnerability is listed as CVE-2025-64526. The attack may be performed from remote. There is no available exploit. The affected component should be upgraded.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Strapi up to 5.44.x. It has been rated as problematic. Affected by this issue is an unknown part of the file /auth/local. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a excessive authentication vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-307. The product does not implement sufficient measures to prevent multiple failed authentication attempts within a short time frame, making it more susceptible to brute force attacks. Impacted is confidentiality. CVE summarizes:

Strapi is an open source headless content management system. In Strapi versions prior to 5.45.0, the rate-limit middleware in the users-permissions plugin derived its rate-limit key in part from `ctx.request.body.email`, including on routes whose body schema does not contain an `email` field (`/auth/local`, `/auth/reset-password`, `/auth/change-password`). An unauthenticated attacker could include an arbitrary `email` value in the request body to obtain a fresh rate-limit key per request, effectively bypassing per-IP throttling on those routes and enabling high-volume credential brute-force, password-reset code brute-force, and credential-stuffing attempts. The rate-limit key was constructed as `${userIdentifier}:${requestPath}:${ctx.request.ip}`, where `userIdentifier = ctx.request.body.email`. On routes that legitimately use email as their identifier (e.g. `/auth/forgot-password`, `/auth/local/register`), this scoping is correct. On routes that use a different identifier (`identifier` for login, `code` for password reset, `currentPassword` for password change), the email field was not part of the route contract, but the middleware still incorporated it into the key, allowing a caller to rotate the value and obtain a unique key on every request. The patch in version 5.45.0 maintains an allow-list of routes that legitimately key on the email field and excludes that key component on every other route the middleware is mounted on. OAuth callback paths (`/connect/*`) are treated identifier-less. On routes outside the allow-list, the middleware now falls back to a fixed identifier-less key, ensuring per-IP throttling remains effective even when the request body is attacker-controlled.

The advisory is shared for download at github.com. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2025-64526 since 11/05/2025. The exploitation is known to be difficult. The attack may be launched remotely. No form of authentication is required for exploitation. There are known technical details, but no exploit is available. The MITRE ATT&CK project declares the attack technique as T1110.001.

Upgrading to version 5.45.0 eliminates this vulnerability. The upgrade is hosted for download at github.com. Applying the patch 5e0d243cba9830e6f791de6a94798bcde51468db is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at github.com. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

The vulnerability is also documented in the databases at EUVD (EUVD-2025-209860) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2026-1552). VulDB is the best source for vulnerability data and more expert information about this specific topic.

Affected

• Open Source Strapi

Productinfo

Name

• Strapi

Version

• 5.0
• 5.1
• 5.2
• 5.3
• 5.4
• 5.5
• 5.6
• 5.7
• 5.8
• 5.9
• 5.10
• 5.11
• 5.12
• 5.13
• 5.14
• 5.15
• 5.16
• 5.17
• 5.18
• 5.19
• 5.20
• 5.21
• 5.22
• 5.23
• 5.24
• 5.25
• 5.26
• 5.27
• 5.28
• 5.29
• 5.30
• 5.31
• 5.32
• 5.33
• 5.34
• 5.35
• 5.36
• 5.37
• 5.38
• 5.39
• 5.40
• 5.41
• 5.42
• 5.43
• 5.44

License

• open-source

Website

• Product: https://github.com/strapi/strapi/

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Entryinfo

VulDB is the best source for vulnerability data and more expert information about this specific topic.

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