calibre is a cross-platform e-book manager for viewing, converting, editing, and cataloging e-books. Prior to version 9.4.0, the calibre Content Server's brute-force protection mechanism uses a ban key derived from both `remote_addr` and the `X-Forwarded-For` header. Since the `X-Forwarded-For` header is read directly from the HTTP request without any validation or trusted-proxy configuration, an attacker can bypass IP-based bans by simply changing or adding this header, rendering the brute-force protection completely ineffective.
This is particularly dangerous for calibre servers exposed to the internet, where brute-force protection is the primary defense against credential stuffing and password guessing attacks. Version 9.4.0 contains a fix for the issue.
Attack Parameters
Impact Assessment
CVSS Vector v3.1