CVE-2026-27824 | calibre has IP Ban Bypass via X-Forwarded-For Header Spoofing

Exp

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.

Published: 2026-02-27 Last update: 2026-03-04 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2026-27824 is rated Exploit Available (50/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.15%). Core evidence: 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). Mandatory action: Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2026-27824

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2026-27824

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-18 0.19% 0.15% -0.04%
2 2026-06-15 0.01% 0.19% +0.17%
3 2026-02-28 0.01%

Full EPSS history (3 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2026-27824

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.3 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:L)
Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
3.9 1.4 [email protected]
5.3 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:L)
Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
3.9 1.4 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2026-27824

OS Trackers for CVE-2026-27824

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2026-27824 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (calibre), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 4, open 1. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2026-27824
ubuntu medium CVE-2026-27824 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (calibre), 7 status rows across 7 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, questing, upstream, xenial): needs-triage 6, released 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2026-27824

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2026-27824

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
calibre-ebook calibre < 9.4.0 cpe:2.3:a:calibre-ebook:calibre:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2026-27824

cvelogic Threat Intelligence