CVE-2023-36456

Authentik lacks Proxy IP headers validation

HIGH
7.3
CVSS Score
Published: July 6, 2023 at 06:24 PM UTC
Updated: June 17, 2026 at 06:06 AM UTC
1 product affected across 1 vendorAuthentik

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Severity
HIGH7.3
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.8%
SSVC
No known exploit

Description

authentik is an open-source Identity Provider. Prior to versions 2023.4.3 and 2023.5.5, authentik does not verify the source of the X-Forwarded-For and X-Real-IP headers, both in the Python code and the go code. Only authentik setups that are directly accessible by users without a reverse proxy are susceptible to this. Possible spoofing of IP addresses in logs, downstream applications proxied by (built in) outpost, IP bypassing in custom flows if used. This poses a possible security risk when someone has flows or policies that check the user's IP address, e.g. when they want to ignore the user's 2 factor authentication when the user is connected to the company network. A second security risk is that the IP addresses in the logfiles and user sessions are not reliable anymore. Anybody can spoof this address and one cannot verify that the user has logged in from the IP address that is in their account's log. A third risk is that this header is passed on to the proxied application behind an outpost. The application may do any kind of verification, logging, blocking or rate limiting based on the IP address, and this IP address can be overridden by anybody that want to. Versions 2023.4.3 and 2023.5.5 contain a patch for this issue.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

v < 2023.4.3v < 2023.5.52023.5.0 ≤ v < 2023.5.5
Affected range stops below 2023.4.3, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
Affected range stops below 2023.5.5, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCNo known exploitAutomatablePartial impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

Attack Vector
NETWORK
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
LOW
Integrity
LOW
Availability
LOW
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusMODIFIED
CWE
CWE-436

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