Skip to content

Caddy Defender trusted proxy client IP bypass

High severity GitHub Reviewed Published May 14, 2026 in JasonLovesDoggo/caddy-defender • Updated May 19, 2026

Package

gomod pkg.jsn.cam/caddy-defender (Go)

Affected versions

< 0.10.1

Patched versions

0.10.1

Description

Impact

Caddy Defender used r.RemoteAddr when evaluating whether a request should be blocked. RemoteAddr is the address of the immediate peer connected to Caddy.

In deployments where Caddy is behind a trusted proxy, CDN, or load balancer, the immediate peer is usually the proxy, not the original client. Caddy resolves the original client address into its client_ip request variable after applying the configured trusted_proxies policy, but Defender did not use that value.

As a result, clients from blocked IP ranges could bypass Defender when accessing Caddy through a trusted proxy whose own IP address was not blocked. This affects deployments that use Defender behind trusted proxies and expect it to enforce blocking based on the real client IP.

Patches

The issue is fixed by making Defender prefer Caddys resolved client_ip request variable when it is available. Defender falls back to RemoteAddr only when Caddy has not provided a resolved client IP.

Users should upgrade to v0.10.1 or later.

Workarounds

There is no complete workaround in affected Defender versions for deployments that rely on Caddys trusted proxy client IP resolution.

Until upgrading, affected users should enforce equivalent IP blocking at the trusted proxy, CDN, load balancer, firewall, or other edge layer before traffic reaches Caddy.

Deployments where Caddy receives traffic directly from clients, without an intermediate trusted proxy, are not affected by this bypass.

References

Published to the GitHub Advisory Database May 19, 2026
Reviewed May 19, 2026
Last updated May 19, 2026

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
High
Integrity
Low
Availability
None

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:H/I:L/A:N

EPSS score

Weaknesses

Improper Access Control

The product does not restrict or incorrectly restricts access to a resource from an unauthorized actor. Learn more on MITRE.

Use of Less Trusted Source

The product has two different sources of the same data or information, but it uses the source that has less support for verification, is less trusted, or is less resistant to attack. Learn more on MITRE.

CVE ID

CVE-2026-46415

GHSA ID

GHSA-3h23-rrpc-3p87

Credits

Loading Checking history
See something to contribute? Suggest improvements for this vulnerability.