CVE-2026-84303

### Summary A vulnerability in the xDS RBAC HTTP filter implementation in grpc-go allows remote attackers to bypass authorization policies (specifically DENY rules) by using mixed-case or canonical-case header matchers (e.g., X-Role instead of x-role). Additionally, the safety guards introduced by gRFC A41 to block grpc- prefixed headers can be evaded via variations in casing (e.g., Grpc-Status). ### Impact When an operator defines an RBAC policy referencing headers containing uppercase letters (e.g. X-Role), grpc-go fails to match incoming metadata keys because they are unconditionally lowercased. Because of this case-sensitivity mismatch, a policy designed to block requests containing specific header values fails open: the rule is evaluated as a non-match, and traffic that should have been rejected is served. Furthermore, gRFC A41 requires rejecting configuration schemas specifying header matchers starting with grpc-. Because this check is executed case-sensitively in grpc-go, attackers can bypass the validation by specifying titles like Grpc-Status. ### Patches The problem is fixed in `master` and in the 1.83.1 release.

In google.golang.org/grpc, the xDS RBAC HTTP filter does not lowercase header matcher names before evaluating them against incoming request metadata. When an RBAC policy defines rules (such as DENY) referencing headers with uppercase or mixed-case characters, the rule fails to match, causing authorization policies to fail open. Additionally, callers can evade gRFC A41 validation blocking "grpc-" prefixed headers and ":scheme" via variations in casing.