sysadminsmedia homebox up to 0.23.x Header X-Forwarded-For excessive authentication

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability has been found in sysadminsmedia homebox up to 0.23.x and classified as problematic. This affects an unknown function of the component Header Handler. This manipulation of the argument X-Forwarded-For causes excessive authentication. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2026-27981. The attack can be initiated remotely. There is not any exploit available. The affected component should be upgraded.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in sysadminsmedia homebox up to 0.23.x. It has been declared as problematic. Affected by this vulnerability is an unknown part of the component Header Handler. The manipulation of the argument X-Forwarded-For with an unknown input leads to a excessive authentication vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-307. The product does not implement sufficient measures to prevent multiple failed authentication attempts within a short time frame, making it more susceptible to brute force attacks. As an impact it is known to affect confidentiality. The summary by CVE is:

HomeBox is a home inventory and organization system. Prior to 0.24.0, the authentication rate limiter (authRateLimiter) tracks failed attempts per client IP. It determines the client IP by reading, 1. X-Real-IP header, 2. First entry of X-Forwarded-For header, and 3. r.RemoteAddr (TCP connection address). These headers were read unconditionally. An attacker connecting directly to Homebox could forge any value in X-Real-IP, effectively getting a fresh rate limit identity per request. There is a TrustProxy option in the configuration (Options.TrustProxy, default false), but this option was never read by any middleware or rate limiter code. Additionally, chi's middleware.RealIP was applied unconditionally in main.go, overwriting r.RemoteAddr with the forged header value before it reaches any handler. This vulnerability is fixed in 0.24.0.

It is possible to read the advisory at github.com. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2026-27981 since 02/25/2026. The exploitation appears to be difficult. The attack can be launched remotely. The exploitation doesn't need any form of authentication. Technical details of the vulnerability are known, but there is no available exploit. The attack technique deployed by this issue is T1110.001 according to MITRE ATT&CK.

Upgrading to version 0.24.0 eliminates this vulnerability.

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Productinfo

Vendor

• sysadminsmedia

Name

• homebox

Version

• 0.1
• 0.2
• 0.3
• 0.4
• 0.5
• 0.6
• 0.7
• 0.8
• 0.9
• 0.10
• 0.11
• 0.12
• 0.13
• 0.14
• 0.15
• 0.16
• 0.17
• 0.18
• 0.19
• 0.20
• 0.21
• 0.22
• 0.23

Website

• Product: https://github.com/sysadminsmedia/homebox/

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