CVE-2026-27586
Caddy's mTLS client authentication silently fails open when CA certificate file is missing or malformed
- Published
- Updated
- Reserved
- Assigned by
- GitHub_M
Description
Caddy is an extensible server platform that uses TLS by default. Prior to version 2.11.1, two swallowed errors in `ClientAuthentication.provision()` cause mTLS client certificate authentication to silently fail open when a CA certificate file is missing, unreadable, or malformed. The server starts without error but accepts any client certificate signed by any system-trusted CA, completely bypassing the intended private CA trust boundary. Any deployment using `trusted_ca_cert_file` or `trusted_ca_certs_pem_files` for mTLS will silently degrade to accepting any system-trusted client certificate if the CA file becomes unavailable. This can happen due to a typo in the path, file rotation, corruption, or permission changes. The server gives no indication that mTLS is misconfigured. Version 2.11.1 fixes the vulnerability.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub_MCNA (assigner) | 4.0 | High8.8 | CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:P |
| NVDNVD · Analyzed | 4.0 | High8.8 | CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:P/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.29% · top 78% of all CVEs (6 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: poc · Automatable: yes · Technical impact: partial
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: High 8.8.
Weakness
Affected products
- affected < 2.11.1
Affected packages
From reviewed advisories of the GitHub Advisory Database.
- Gogithub.com/caddyserver/caddy/v2GHSA-hffm-g8v7-wrv7 (opens in a new tab)
References (3)
- https://github.com/caddyserver/caddy/security/advisories/GHSA-hffm-g8v7-wrv7 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRM
- https://gist.github.com/moscowchill/9566c79c76c0b64c57f8bd0716f97c48 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/caddyserver/caddy/releases/tag/v2.11.1 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISC
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisory GHSA-hffm-g8v7-wrv7 (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://trackcve.app/cve/CVE-2026-27586)Record last updated .