diff --git a/deployment/aws/lambda/Dockerfile b/deployment/aws/lambda/Dockerfile
index 159b58c60..c8992bcb1 100644
--- a/deployment/aws/lambda/Dockerfile
+++ b/deployment/aws/lambda/Dockerfile
@@ -1,9 +1,12 @@
-ARG PYTHON_VERSION=3.10
+ARG PYTHON_VERSION=3.12
 
 FROM --platform=linux/amd64 public.ecr.aws/lambda/python:${PYTHON_VERSION}
 
 WORKDIR /tmp
 
+# Install system dependencies to compile (numexpr)
+RUN dnf install -y gcc-c++ && dnf clean all
+
 RUN pip install pip -U
 # Install TiTiler from local source. This is necessary because
 # pyproject.toml refers to TiTiler dependencies (core, extensions,
@@ -11,6 +14,9 @@ RUN pip install pip -U
 COPY . /titiler
 RUN pip install "/titiler/src/titiler/application" "mangum>=0.10.0" -t /asset --no-binary pydantic
 
+RUN mkdir -p /asset/lib
+RUN cp /lib64/libexpat.so.1 /asset/lib/
+
 # Reduce package size and remove useless files
 RUN cd /asset && find . -type f -name '*.pyc' | while read f; do n=$(echo $f | sed 's/__pycache__\///' | sed 's/.cpython-[0-9]*//'); cp $f $n; done;
 RUN cd /asset && find . -type d -a -name '__pycache__' -print0 | xargs -0 rm -rf
diff --git a/dockerfiles/Dockerfile.gunicorn b/dockerfiles/Dockerfile.gunicorn
index 6df319f04..fea976777 100644
--- a/dockerfiles/Dockerfile.gunicorn
+++ b/dockerfiles/Dockerfile.gunicorn
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ ENV CURL_CA_BUNDLE /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
 COPY src/titiler/ /tmp/titiler/
 RUN python -m pip install -U pip
 RUN python -m pip install /tmp/titiler/core /tmp/titiler/extensions["cogeo,stac"] /tmp/titiler/mosaic /tmp/titiler/application --no-cache-dir --upgrade
-RUN rm -rf /tmp/titiler
+# RUN rm -rf /tmp/titiler
 
 ENV MODULE_NAME titiler.application.main
 ENV VARIABLE_NAME app
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 03df56013..01bf1e34f 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 name = "titiler"
 description = "A modern dynamic tile server built on top of FastAPI and Rasterio/GDAL."
 readme = "README.md"
-requires-python = ">=3.8"
+requires-python = "3.12"
 license = {file = "LICENSE"}
 authors = [
     {name = "Vincent Sarago", email = "vincent@developmentseed.com"},
@@ -31,10 +31,10 @@ version="0.11.6"
 dependencies = [
     # Configured for volume-mount path of Lambda Dockerfile. For local
     # development, update accordingly for your local filesystem path:
-    "titiler.core @ file:///titiler/src/titiler/core",
-    "titiler.extensions @ file:///titiler/src/titiler/extensions",
-    "titiler.mosaic @ file:///titiler/src/titiler/mosaic",
-    "titiler.application @ file:///titiler/src/titiler/application",
+    "titiler.core @ file:///titiler/src//titiler/core",
+    "titiler.extensions @ file:///titiler/src//titiler/extensions",
+    "titiler.mosaic @ file:///titiler/src//titiler/mosaic",
+    "titiler.application @ file:///titiler/src//titiler/application",
 ]
 
 [project.optional-dependencies]
diff --git a/src/titiler/application/pyproject.toml b/src/titiler/application/pyproject.toml
index 3312f5f5f..e9afaf07d 100644
--- a/src/titiler/application/pyproject.toml
+++ b/src/titiler/application/pyproject.toml
@@ -31,9 +31,9 @@ dynamic = ["version"]
 dependencies = [
     # Configured for volume-mount path of Lambda Dockerfile. For local
     # development, update accordingly for your local filesystem path:
-    "titiler.core @ file:///titiler/src/titiler/core",
-    "titiler.extensions[cogeo,stac] @ file:///titiler/src/titiler/extensions",
-    "titiler.mosaic @ file:///titiler/src/titiler/mosaic",
+    "titiler.core @ file:///titiler/src//titiler/core",
+    "titiler.extensions[cogeo,stac] @ file:///titiler/src//titiler/extensions",
+    "titiler.mosaic @ file:///titiler/src//titiler/mosaic",
     "starlette-cramjam>=0.3,<0.4",
     "python-dotenv",
 ]
diff --git a/src/titiler/application/titiler/application/main.py b/src/titiler/application/titiler/application/main.py
index 557450ed9..8930469e2 100644
--- a/src/titiler/application/titiler/application/main.py
+++ b/src/titiler/application/titiler/application/main.py
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@
     LoggerMiddleware,
     LowerCaseQueryStringMiddleware,
     TotalTimeMiddleware,
+    BlockVRTMiddleware,
 )
 from titiler.extensions import (
     cogValidateExtension,
@@ -173,6 +174,7 @@
 if api_settings.lower_case_query_parameters:
     app.add_middleware(LowerCaseQueryStringMiddleware)
 
+app.add_middleware(BlockVRTMiddleware)
 
 router = APIRouter(prefix=global_prefix)
 
diff --git a/src/titiler/core/titiler/core/middleware.py b/src/titiler/core/titiler/core/middleware.py
index f592c962d..fceb51b8b 100644
--- a/src/titiler/core/titiler/core/middleware.py
+++ b/src/titiler/core/titiler/core/middleware.py
@@ -6,10 +6,12 @@
 from typing import Optional, Set
 
 from fastapi.logger import logger
+import rasterio
 from starlette.datastructures import MutableHeaders
 from starlette.requests import Request
 from starlette.types import ASGIApp, Message, Receive, Scope, Send
-
+from starlette.middleware.base import BaseHTTPMiddleware
+from starlette.responses import Response
 
 class CacheControlMiddleware:
     """MiddleWare to add CacheControl in response headers."""
@@ -166,3 +168,41 @@ async def __call__(self, scope: Scope, receive: Receive, send: Send):
             request.scope["query_string"] = query_string.encode(DECODE_FORMAT)
 
         await self.app(scope, receive, send)
+
+class BlockVRTMiddleware(BaseHTTPMiddleware):
+    """Middleware to block requests with vrt in the path."""
+    async def dispatch(self, request: Request, call_next):
+        """Handle call."""
+        # Check path for VRT
+        logger.info(f"Processing request: {request.url}")
+        if ".vrt" in request.scope["path"].lower():
+            return Response(
+                content="VRT files are not supported.",
+                status_code=403,
+            )
+
+        # Check URL parameter for VRT
+        url_param = request.query_params.get("url", "").lower()
+        if ".vrt" in url_param:
+            return Response(
+                content="VRT files are not supported in URL parameters.",
+                status_code=403,
+            )
+
+        # TODO: check if we need this.
+        if url_param.startswith(("http://", "https://", "s3://", "gs://", "azure://")):
+
+            try:
+                with rasterio.open(url_param, sharing=False) as src:
+                    if src.driver == "VRT":
+                        return Response(
+                            content="VRT files are not supported in URL parameters.",
+                            status_code=403,
+                        )
+            except Exception:
+                # If rasterio fails to open the file, we assume it's not a VRT
+                pass
+
+        # Continue with the request if no VRT detected
+        response = await call_next(request)
+        return response
diff --git a/src/titiler/extensions/pyproject.toml b/src/titiler/extensions/pyproject.toml
index 525cf0d71..04da04010 100644
--- a/src/titiler/extensions/pyproject.toml
+++ b/src/titiler/extensions/pyproject.toml
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ dynamic = ["version"]
 dependencies = [
     # Configured for volume-mount path of Lambda Dockerfile. For local
     # development, update accordingly for your local filesystem path:
-    "titiler.core @ file:///titiler/src/titiler/core",
+    "titiler.core @ file:///titiler/src//titiler/core",
 ]
 
 [project.optional-dependencies]
diff --git a/src/titiler/mosaic/pyproject.toml b/src/titiler/mosaic/pyproject.toml
index 3d0265f5e..e3e1290ae 100644
--- a/src/titiler/mosaic/pyproject.toml
+++ b/src/titiler/mosaic/pyproject.toml
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ dynamic = ["version"]
 dependencies = [
     # Configured for volume-mount path of Lambda Dockerfile. For local
     # development, update accordingly for your local filesystem path:
-    "titiler.core @ file:///titiler/src/titiler/core",
+    "titiler.core @ file:///titiler/src//titiler/core",
     "cogeo-mosaic>=5.0,<5.2",
 ]