Skip to content
Fencer Intel
critical 9.8

CVE-2026-85751 json

Mailu: Authentication bypass in header-based proxy authentication via spoofable `X-Forwarded-By` trust

published 3mo ago modified last mo. also EUVD-2026-83975 , GHSA-rfhj-4wcq-74xg

Unreviewed: the maintainers' own advisory

Published by the maintainers on their GitHub repository Mailu/Mailu. GitHub has not reviewed it into the GitHub Advisory Database, so the affected packages and versions are the maintainers' word. Read the full advisory on GitHub.

cvss
9.8
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.6%
EPSS 0.6% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 46%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

Mailu is a mail server distributed as a set of Docker images. From Mailu 2.0 until 2024.06.55 and prior to Mailu helm-charts 2.7.3, deployments with PROXY_AUTH_WHITELIST configured but REAL_IP_HEADER unset trusted a client-controlled X-Forwarded-By header for header-based proxy authentication. The proxy_hide_header directive in the nginx template at core/nginx/conf/proxy.conf hid the header from upstream responses but did not overwrite the incoming request value in this configuration. An unauthenticated remote attacker could therefore spoof the trusted proxy identity and bypass authentication. This issue is fixed in Mailu 2024.06.55 and Mailu helm-charts 2.7.3.

Patch / fix

Is CVE-2026-85751 in your stack? Fencer shows which of your repositories are affected as soon as an advisory lands, and opens the fix as a pull request.

Check with Fencer

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
yes
Technical impact
total
Assessed
last mo.

Exploit prediction

0.56% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 46% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-11).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 9.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Affected products

  • Mailu Mailu
  • Mailu helm-charts

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-290 Authentication Bypass by Spoofing
  • CWE-807 Reliance on Untrusted Inputs in a Security Decision

References

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.

The maintainers of Mailu/Mailu published their own advisory on GitHub. Reviewed sources take precedence over it.