Vulnerability Details CVE-2026-23996
FastAPI Api Key provides a backend-agnostic library that provides an API key system. Version 1.1.0 has a timing side-channel vulnerability in verify_key(). The method applied a random delay only on verification failures, allowing an attacker to statistically distinguish valid from invalid API keys by measuring response latencies. With enough repeated requests, an adversary could infer whether a key_id corresponds to a valid key, potentially accelerating brute-force or enumeration attacks. All users relying on verify_key() for API key authentication prior to the fix are affected. Users should upgrade to version 1.1.0 to receive a patch. The patch applies a uniform random delay (min_delay to max_delay) to all responses regardless of outcome, eliminating the timing correlation. Some workarounds are available. Add an application-level fixed delay or random jitter to all authentication responses (success and failure) before the fix is applied and/or use rate limiting to reduce the feasibility of statistical timing attacks.
Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score
EPSS Score 0.001
EPSS Ranking 17.4%
CVSS Severity
CVSS v3 Score 3.7
Products affected by CVE-2026-23996
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cpe:2.3:a:athroniaeth:fastapi_api_key:0.10.0
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cpe:2.3:a:athroniaeth:fastapi_api_key:0.11.0
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cpe:2.3:a:athroniaeth:fastapi_api_key:0.12.0
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cpe:2.3:a:athroniaeth:fastapi_api_key:0.13.0
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cpe:2.3:a:athroniaeth:fastapi_api_key:0.13.1
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cpe:2.3:a:athroniaeth:fastapi_api_key:0.13.2
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cpe:2.3:a:athroniaeth:fastapi_api_key:0.13.3
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cpe:2.3:a:athroniaeth:fastapi_api_key:0.2.0
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cpe:2.3:a:athroniaeth:fastapi_api_key:0.2.1
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cpe:2.3:a:athroniaeth:fastapi_api_key:0.3.0
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cpe:2.3:a:athroniaeth:fastapi_api_key:0.4.0
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cpe:2.3:a:athroniaeth:fastapi_api_key:0.5.0
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cpe:2.3:a:athroniaeth:fastapi_api_key:0.6.0
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cpe:2.3:a:athroniaeth:fastapi_api_key:0.7.0
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cpe:2.3:a:athroniaeth:fastapi_api_key:0.7.1
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cpe:2.3:a:athroniaeth:fastapi_api_key:0.7.2
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cpe:2.3:a:athroniaeth:fastapi_api_key:0.7.3
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cpe:2.3:a:athroniaeth:fastapi_api_key:0.8.0
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cpe:2.3:a:athroniaeth:fastapi_api_key:0.8.1
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cpe:2.3:a:athroniaeth:fastapi_api_key:0.8.2
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cpe:2.3:a:athroniaeth:fastapi_api_key:0.8.3
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cpe:2.3:a:athroniaeth:fastapi_api_key:0.9.0
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cpe:2.3:a:athroniaeth:fastapi_api_key:1.0.0