---
id: CVE-2026-74878
aliases:
  - GHSA-h45m-mgcp-q388
title: >-
  openssl-encrypt: TOTP rate limiter is in-memory only — not shared across
  workers, lost on restart
summary: >-
  openssl-encrypt: TOTP rate limiter is in-memory only — not shared across
  workers, lost on restart
severity: critical
vendor: openssl-encrypt
product: openssl-encrypt
ecosystem: pip
affected:
  - openssl-encrypt < 1.4.0
patched:
  - openssl-encrypt 1.4.0
published: '2026-03-31'
updated: '2026-08-18'
source: OSV
sourceUrl: 'https://osv.dev/vulnerability/GHSA-h45m-mgcp-q388'
references:
  - url: >-
      https://github.com/jahlives/openssl_encrypt/security/advisories/GHSA-h45m-mgcp-q388
  - url: >-
      https://github.com/jahlives/openssl_encrypt/commit/2749bc0949b34a5921a35fb4a3f1856fc51916de
  - url: 'https://github.com/jahlives/openssl_encrypt'
tags:
  - osv
  - pip
ingestedAt: '2026-08-18T12:28:08.759Z'
epss: 0.00749
epssPercentile: 0.52962
---

## Overview

## Severity: HIGH

### Summary

The TOTP brute-force rate limiter in `openssl_encrypt_server/modules/pepper/totp.py` at **lines 47-98** uses an in-memory `defaultdict(list)` as a class variable.

### Affected Code

```python
class TOTPRateLimiter:
    def __init__(self, ...):
        self.attempts: Dict[str, List[datetime]] = defaultdict(list)
        self.lockouts: Dict[str, datetime] = {}

class TOTPService:
    _rate_limiter = TOTPRateLimiter()  # Class variable, in-memory only
```

### Impact

1. Rate limit state is **not shared** across multiple server instances/workers — an attacker can distribute attempts
2. All rate limit state is **lost on server restart** — allows immediate retry
3. In multi-worker deployments, each worker has independent rate limit state

### Recommended Fix

- Use Redis or the database for rate limit state storage
- Or use a shared-memory approach for multi-worker deployments
- At minimum, persist lockout state to survive restarts

### Fix

Fixed in commit `2749bc0` on branch `releases/1.4.x` — added abstract RateLimitBackend with InMemoryBackend and DatabaseBackend implementations; defaults to DatabaseBackend when DB available.

## Affected packages

- `openssl-encrypt < 1.4.0`

## Remediation

Upgrade to a patched release:

- `openssl-encrypt 1.4.0`