Vulnerability in Oauth2-Proxy
CVE-2025-64484
OAuth2-Proxy is an open-source tool that can act as either a standalone reverse proxy or a middleware component integrated into existing reverse proxy or load balancer setups. In versions prior to 7.13.0, all deployments of OAuth2 Proxy in front of applications that normalize underscores to dashes in HTTP headers (e.g., WSGI-based frameworks such as Django, Flask, FastAPI, and PHP applications). Authenticated users can inject underscore variants of X-Forwarded-* headers that bypass the proxy’s filtering logic, potentially escalating privileges in the upstream app. OAuth2 Proxy authentication/authorization itself is not compromised. The problem has been patched with v7.13.0. By default all specified headers will now be normalized, meaning that both capitalization and the use of underscores (_) versus dashes (-) will be ignored when matching headers to be stripped. For example, both `X-Forwarded-For` and `X_Forwarded-for` will now be treated as equivalent and stripped away. For those who have a rational that requires keeping a similar looking header and not stripping it, the maintainers introduced a new configuration field for Headers managed through the AlphaConfig called `InsecureSkipHeaderNormalization`. As a workaround, ensure filtering and processing logic in upstream services don't treat underscores and hyphens in Headers the same way.
Published · last modified .
CVSS v3 metric
CVSS v3 base score 8.5 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:L/A:N.
EPSS exploit prediction
EPSS: 0.007 (50.6th percentile), scored .
Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 51st percentile — 50.6% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.
EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.006 · newest: 0.007 · change: +0.000
Affected products
- Oauth2-Proxy — versions < 7.13.0
Weakness classification (CWE)
References
- github.com/oauth2-proxy/oauth2-proxy/security/advisories/GHSA-vjrc-mh2v-45x6
- datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc2616
- datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc822
- github.security.telekom.com/2020/05/smuggling-http-headers-through-reverse-prox…
- www.uptimia.com/questions/why-are-http-headers-with-underscores-dropped-by-nginx
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2025-64484?
- CVE-2025-64484 is a high-severity vulnerability in Oauth2-Proxy, classified under Improper Neutralization of HTTP Headers for Scripting Syntax. CVSS score: 8.5/10. Published 2025-11-10.
- How severe is CVE-2025-64484?
- High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 8.5 out of 10.