CVE-2023-36456 — authentik is an open-source Identity Provider

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

01What is this vulnerability?

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…

02Affected products

Vendor	Product	Versions
goauthentik	authentik	< 2023.4.3, >= 2023.5.0, < 2023.5.5

03Active exploitation status

Not currently listed on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog. EPSS is the best forward-looking signal — see the EPSS row above.

04Recommended remediation

• Patch to a fixed version listed in the vendor advisory (see references below).
• Mitigate with WAF rules, network egress filters, or feature flags where the patch is not yet available.
• Hunt historical logs for exploitation indicators — see Detection signatures below.

05Technical details

For the full vendor write-up, exploit chains, and reference implementations, see the references list in section 09.

06Detection signatures

Ask SARA in chat to draft a starting detection for this CVE in your stack of choice.

07Related CVEs

No directly-cited follow-up CVEs in the KB record for this advisory. The references list in section 09 carries the vendor cross-references.

08Timeline

• Published: 2023-07-06T18:24:03.308Z
• Last modified: 2024-11-14T14:10:35.658Z

09References

• github.com — https://github.com/goauthentik/authentik/security/advisories/GHSA-cmxp-jcw7-jjjv
• github.com — https://github.com/goauthentik/authentik/commit/15026748d19d490eb2baf9a9566ead4f…
• github.com — https://github.com/goauthentik/authentik/commit/c07a48a3eccbd7b23026f72136d3392b…
• goauthentik.io — https://goauthentik.io/docs/releases/2023.4#fixed-in-202343
• goauthentik.io — https://goauthentik.io/docs/releases/2023.5#fixed-in-202355