CVE-2026-90711: proxy-addr vulnerable to IP spoofing via IPv4-mapped IPv6 trust subnet

Should you act?

Critical and remotely reachable

No known exploitation yet, but it is network-reachable without credentials. This signal is computed from CISA KEV, EPSS and CVSS data; it is not an editorial verdict.

• No confirmed exploitation. It is not in CISA’s KEV catalog and CISA’s SSVC assessment records no known exploitation. That can change quickly after a public write-up; re-check if you are affected.
• EPSS 0.3%, percentile 25: FIRST’s model estimates a 0.3% chance of exploitation activity in the next 30 days, higher than 25% of all scored CVEs (low). EPSS is a probability, not a verdict.
• Remotely reachable with no login and no user interaction. If the vulnerable service is exposed to the internet, prioritize it.
• Only applies if your dependency tree includes proxy-addr (npm) >= 1.1.0, < 2.0.8, fixed in 2.0.8. Check your lockfile, including transitive dependencies.

What it is

proxy-addr is a Node.js module that determines a request's client address behind trusted reverse proxies, and it backs Express req.ip and req.ips. In versions 1.1.0 through 2.0.7, a trust subnet written in IPv4-mapped IPv6 notation with an IPv4-sized prefix, such as ::ffff:10.0.0.0/8 instead of the correct ::ffff:10.0.0.0/104, is accepted without error but trusts every IPv4 address on the internet rather than the block it names. Because the socket peer then becomes trusted at hop 0, any unauthenticated client can supply an arbitrary X-Forwarded-For header and control the address the application reads, which defeats IP-based access control, rate limiting, geolocation, and audit logging. This is a fail-open regression introduced in version 1.1.0. The issue is fixed in proxy-addr 2.0.8, and users should upgrade to 2.0.8 or later. As a workaround, ensure any IPv4-mapped IPv6 trust subnet uses a prefix length of at least 97, or express the range in plain IPv4 notation.

From the GitHub advisory

Impact

proxy-addr determines which network hops are trusted proxies so that X-Forwarded-For can be believed. When an application configures a trust subnet as an IPv4-mapped IPv6 address with a short prefix, such as ::ffff:10.0.0.0/8 (the correct spelling is ::ffff:10.0.0.0/104), the subnet compiles with all-zero leading bits and matches every IPv4 address instead of the block it names. The same happens for any IPv6 trust subnet with zero leading bits, such as ::/1.

Every unauthenticated client is then trusted as a proxy at hop 0, so proxyaddr(req, trust), and therefore req.ip and req.ips in Express, returns whatever the client sends in X-Forwarded-For. This defeats IP-based access control, rate limiting, geolocation, and audit logging. The misconfiguration compiles without any error, and the same block written correctly behaves correctly, so the difference is not visible from the configuration.

Patches

Upgrade to proxy-addr 2.0.8. An IPv4 address now matches an IPv6 trust subnet only when that subnet is a genuine IPv4-mapped subnet whose prefix covers the mapped marker.

Weakness type: CWE-290, CWE-348, CWE-697.

Product: proxy-addr (npm) · Assigned by: openjs · Published: 2026-09-15

Affected and fixed versions

Severity scores

• Attack vector: network (remotely reachable)
• Attack complexity: low
• Privileges required: none (no login)
• User interaction: none
• Scope: unchanged

CVSS measures how bad a flaw is if exploited, not how likely exploitation is. Read it next to the exploitation data below.

Exploitation and urgency

• CISA KEV: not listed (no confirmed in-the-wild exploitation known to CISA).
• CISA SSVC assessment: exploitation none, automatable no, technical impact total.
• FIRST EPSS (model of 2026-10-21): 0.33% probability of exploitation activity in the next 30 days; percentile 25.

Timeline

• 2026-09-15 — CVE record last updated
• 2026-09-15 — CVE record published by openjs
• 2026-10-05 — GitHub-reviewed advisory GHSA-jqcg-44mw-7w3h published (critical)

Sources and references

Original sources first. Version and fix details should always be confirmed against the vendor or project advisory.

Vulnerability records

1. GitHub Advisory GHSA-jqcg-44mw-7w3h github.com
2. CVE.org record CVE-2026-90711 cve.org
3. NVD entry CVE-2026-90711 nvd.nist.gov

Other references from the CVE record and advisory

1. github.com github.com
2. cna.openjsf.org cna.openjsf.org
3. github.com github.com
4. github.com github.com

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