# CVE-2025-64526: Strapi has a rate limit bypass on users-permissions plugin via attacker-controlled email keying

> CVE-2025-64526: Strapi has a rate limit bypass on users-permissions plugin via attacker-controlled email keying. CVSS 5.3 (CVSS 3.1).

Canonical: https://rewindex.com/cve/CVE-2025-64526
Last updated: 2026-10-14T13:10:00Z

- Published: 2026-05-14 18:32 UTC · Updated: 2026-10-14 13:10 UTC · Assigner: GitHub\_M
- CVSS: 5.3 (CVSS 3.1) · Severity: Medium · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
- EPSS: 0.49%, 42th percentile (scored 2026-10-25)
- CISA KEV: no
- CWE: CWE-307

## Description

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.

## Affected vendors and products

- strapi: strapi
- strapi: @strapi/plugin-users-permissions

## Tracked companies

- [Strapi Cloud](https://rewindex.com/company/strapi-cloud.md)

## References

- [CVE record on cve.org](https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-64526)
- [NVD entry](https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-64526)
- [https://github.com/strapi/strapi/commit/5e0d243cba9830e6f791de6a94798bcde51468db](https://github.com/strapi/strapi/commit/5e0d243cba9830e6f791de6a94798bcde51468db)
- [https://github.com/strapi/strapi/pull/24818](https://github.com/strapi/strapi/pull/24818)
- [https://github.com/strapi/strapi/releases/tag/v5.45.0](https://github.com/strapi/strapi/releases/tag/v5.45.0)
- [https://github.com/strapi/strapi/security/advisories/GHSA-7mqx-wwh4-f9fw](https://github.com/strapi/strapi/security/advisories/GHSA-7mqx-wwh4-f9fw)

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_Sources: CVE records from the CVE Program (cve.org). CVE® is a registered trademark of The MITRE Corporation. (https://www.cve.org/) This product uses data from the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. (https://nvd.nist.gov/) Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog from CISA. (https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog) EPSS scores from FIRST (Exploit Prediction Scoring System). (https://www.first.org/epss/)_


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Canonical: https://rewindex.com/cve/CVE-2025-64526 · Markdown: https://rewindex.com/cve/CVE-2025-64526.md · JSON: https://rewindex.com/api/v1/cves/CVE-2025-64526 · Data licensed CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) · Generated 2026-10-26T03:12:00.973Z