Monkeytype: Rate-limit and anti-brute-force controls bypassable via spoofed HTTP headers (forgotPasswordEmail/verificationEmail mail bombing and badAuth bypass)

Summary

CVECVE-2026-69183
StatePUBLISHED
AssignerGitHub_M
Source PriorityCVE Program / NVD first with legacy fallback
Published2026-08-20 17:19:34 UTC
Updated2026-08-20 17:19:34 UTC
DescriptionMonkeytype is a minimalistic and customizable typing test. In 26.26.0 and earlier, the backend rate-limit key generator in backend/src/middlewares/rate-limit.ts uses client-controlled cf-connecting-ip and x-forwarded-for headers before the trust-proxy-derived req.ip value. An unauthenticated attacker can rotate either header to create a new bucket for each request, bypassing rootRateLimiter, badAuthRateLimiter, getKey(), and the getKeyWithUid() fallback used by public endpoints. This permits repeated POST /users/forgotPasswordEmail and verificationEmail requests, mail bombing registered users, consuming Firebase or SMTP quota, evading brute-force protection, and enabling resource exhaustion. Exploitability of cf-connecting-ip depends on deployment topology, but x-forwarded-for and direct-to-origin paths remain affected when those values are not overwritten by a trusted proxy. No fixed version is available as of this review.

Risk And Classification

Primary CVSS: v3.1 7.5 HIGH from [email protected]

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

EPSS: 0.002740000 probability, percentile 0.199250000 (date 2026-08-21)

Problem Types: CWE-290 | CWE-307 | CWE-644 | CWE-290 CWE-290: Authentication Bypass by Spoofing | CWE-307 CWE-307: Improper Restriction of Excessive Authentication Attempts | CWE-644 CWE-644: Improper Neutralization of HTTP Headers for Scripting Syntax


VersionSourceTypeScoreSeverityVector
3.1[email protected]Secondary7.5HIGHCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
3.1CNADECLARED7.5HIGHCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

CVSS v3.1 Breakdown

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Vendor Declared Affected Products

SourceVendorProductVersionPlatforms
CNA Monkeytypegame Monkeytype affected <= 26.26.0 Not specified

References

ReferenceSourceLinkTags
github.com/monkeytypegame/monkeytype/security/advisories/GHSA-c878-p3jh-... 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0 github.com
CVE Program record CVE.ORG www.cve.org canonical
NVD vulnerability detail NVD nvd.nist.gov canonical, analysis

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