CVE-2026-30827

express-rate-limit: IPv4-mapped IPv6 addresses bypass per-client rate limiting (all IPv4 clients share one bucket on dual-stack servers)

HIGH
7.5
CVSS Score
Published: March 7, 2026 at 05:19 AM UTC
Updated: June 17, 2026 at 10:32 AM UTC
2 products affected across 2 vendorsExpress Rate LimitRate Limit

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Severity
HIGH7.5
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.5%
SSVC
PoC

Description

express-rate-limit is a basic rate-limiting middleware for Express. In versions starting from 8.0.0 and prior to versions 8.0.2, 8.1.1, 8.2.2, and 8.3.0, the default keyGenerator in express-rate-limit applies IPv6 subnet masking (/56 by default) to all addresses that net.isIPv6() returns true for. This includes IPv4-mapped IPv6 addresses (::ffff:x.x.x.x), which Node.js returns as request.ip on dual-stack servers. Because the first 80 bits of all IPv4-mapped addresses are zero, a /56 (or any /32 to /80) subnet mask produces the same network key (::/56) for every IPv4 client. This collapses all IPv4 traffic into a single rate-limit bucket: one client exhausting the limit causes HTTP 429 for all other IPv4 clients. This issue has been patched in versions 8.0.2, 8.1.1, 8.2.2, and 8.3.0.

Affected

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

8.0.0 ≤ v < 8.0.28.2.0 ≤ v < 8.2.28.1.0
v < 8.0.2v < 8.1.1v < 8.2.2
Affected range stops below 8.0.2, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
Affected range stops below 8.1.1, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
Affected range stops below 8.2.2, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet. What the record does show:

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCPoCAutomatablePartial impact

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

CVSS

7.5HIGHGitHub_M
Attack Vector
NETWORK
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
NONE
Integrity
NONE
Availability
HIGH
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusANALYZED
CWE
CWE-770

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