Fabio is an HTTP(S) and TCP router for deploying applications managed by consul. From 1.6.6 until 1.7.2, the CVE-2025-48865 fix in proxy/http_headers.go uses protectHeaders for a hardcoded set of forwarded headers but omits the operator-configured ClientIPHeader, TLSHeader, and RequestID names. In proxy/http_proxy.go, HTTPProxy.ServeHTTP calls addHeaders to set these trust headers before Go ReverseProxy processes the inbound Connection header, allowing an unauthenticated client to name and remove the configured headers before the request reaches the backend. Deployments that enable the corresponding proxy.header options can therefore lose client-IP, TLS-termination, or request-correlation signals used by backend authorization and auditing; the options are empty by default, and the hardcoded protected forwarded headers are unaffected. This issue is fixed in version 1.7.2.

Affected: Go: github.com/fabiolb/fabio

**Affected:** github.com/fabiolb/fabio >= 1.6.6 through 1.7.1 and master HEAD (c75f8a6).

### Summary The v1.6.6 fix for CVE-2025-48865 sweeps the client `Connection` header against a hardcoded allowlist `protectHeaders` (proxy/http_headers.go:28-36) containing only the 7 X-Forwarded family headers. Fabio also injects three *operator-configured* server-side trust headers that are NOT in that allowlist, so the original hop-by-hop stripping attack still works against them.

### Details The three unprotected trust headers and where fabio sets them: - ClientIPHeader (`proxy.header.clientip`) - http_headers.go:73 `r.Header.Set(cfg.ClientIPHeader, remoteIP)` - TLSHeader (`proxy.header.tls`) - http_headers.go:153 `r.Header.Set(cfg.TLSHeader, cfg.TLSHeaderValue)` (TLS connections) - RequestID (`proxy.header.requestid`) - http_proxy.go:90 `r.Header.Set(p.Config.RequestID, id())`

Order of operations in HTTPProxy.ServeHTTP: (1) line 90 sets RequestID; (2) line 175 calls addHeaders, which sweeps the Connection header (keeping the three configured names because they are absent from protectHeaders) and then sets ClientIPHeader/TLSHeader; (3) line 223 runs the Go `httputil.ReverseProxy`, whose `removeHopByHopHeaders` (Go stdlib net/http/httputil/reverseproxy.go) iterates the inbound `Connection` header and `h.Del`s every listed header. The three trust headers fabio just set are therefore deleted before the request reaches the backend.

### PoC Configure `proxy.header.clientip=X-Client-IP`…

Affected: Ubuntu:18.04:LTS: consul, Ubuntu:20.04:LTS: consul, Ubuntu:22.04:LTS: consul

Fabio is an HTTP(S) and TCP router for deploying applications managed by consul. From 1.6.6 until 1.7.2, the CVE-2025-48865 fix in proxy/http_headers.go uses protectHeaders for a hardcoded set of forwarded headers but omits the operator-configured ClientIPHeader, TLSHeader, and RequestID names. In proxy/http_proxy.go, HTTPProxy.ServeHTTP calls addHeaders to set these trust headers before Go ReverseProxy processes the inbound Connection header, allowing an unauthenticated client to name and remove the configured headers before the request reaches the backend. Deployments that enable the corresponding proxy.header options can therefore lose client-IP, TLS-termination, or request-correlation signals used by backend authorization and auditing; the options are empty by default, and the hardcoded protected forwarded headers are unaffected. This issue is fixed in version 1.7.2.