GHSA-ffp2-8p2h-4m5j
MEDIUMPassword Pusher rate limiter can be bypassed by forging proxy headers
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
Blast Radius
pwpushReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects RubyGems packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Impact
Password Pusher comes with a configurable rate limiter. In versions prior to v1.49.0, the rate limiter could be bypassed by forging proxy headers allowing bad actors to send unlimited traffic to the site potentially causing a denial of service.
Additionally, with the ability to bypass rate limiting, it also allows attackers to more easily execute brute force attacks.
Patches
In v1.49.0, a fix was implemented to only authorize proxies on local IPs which resolves this issue.
If you are running a remote proxy, please see this documentation on how to authorize the IP address of your remote proxy.
Workarounds
It is highly suggested to upgrade to at least v1.49.0 to mitigate this risk.
If for some reason you cannot immediately upgrade, the alternative is that you can add rules to your proxy and/or firewall to not accept external proxy headers such as X-Forwarded-* from clients.
References
The new settings are configurable to authorize remote proxies.
Credits
Thank you to Positive Technologies for reporting and working with me to bring this CVE to the community with the associated fix.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 💎RubyGems | pwpush | all versions | 1.49.0 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for pwpush. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update pwpush to 1.49.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-ffp2-8p2h-4m5j is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 pinpoints whether GHSA-ffp2-8p2h-4m5j is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.
Tailored to GHSA-ffp2-8p2h-4m5j. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-ffp2-8p2h-4m5j in your dependencies?
O3 detects GHSA-ffp2-8p2h-4m5j across RubyGems dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.