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.
Metrics
Affected Vendors & Products
References
History
Wed, 25 Feb 2026 17:15:00 +0000
| Type | Values Removed | Values Added |
|---|---|---|
| CPEs | cpe:2.3:a:caddyserver:caddy:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* | |
| Metrics |
cvssV3_1
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Wed, 25 Feb 2026 12:00:00 +0000
| Type | Values Removed | Values Added |
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| First Time appeared |
Caddyserver
Caddyserver caddy |
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| Vendors & Products |
Caddyserver
Caddyserver caddy |
Tue, 24 Feb 2026 16:30:00 +0000
| Type | Values Removed | Values Added |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | |
| Title | Caddy's mTLS client authentication silently fails open when CA certificate file is missing or malformed | |
| Weaknesses | CWE-755 | |
| References |
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| Metrics |
cvssV4_0
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Status: PUBLISHED
Assigner: GitHub_M
Published: 2026-02-24T16:08:20.569Z
Updated: 2026-02-24T16:08:20.569Z
Reserved: 2026-02-20T17:40:28.450Z
Link: CVE-2026-27586
No data.
Status : Analyzed
Published: 2026-02-24T17:29:03.793
Modified: 2026-02-25T17:14:19.867
Link: CVE-2026-27586
No data.