Varnish: Multiple IPs compare to ACL using Tilde - acl

Question

What would happen in Varnish if multiple IPs are in an X-Forward-For header which is compared to an ACL using the tilde operator?
Dummy example:
The request has the following HTTP header:
X-Forward-For: 160.12.34.56, 10.10.10.10
The Varnish config looks like this:
acl internal {
"10.10.10.10"
}
if ((std.ip(req.http.X-Forward.For, "0.0.0.0") ~ internal)){
# THIS CODE
}
else {
# OR THIS CODE
}
Which code block is executed?
Also, does the order of the IPs matter in the X-Forward-For header?
Does it change if there are 2 X-Forward-For headers, each with one of the two IPs?

Answer 1

Will it work?
The short answer to your question is no, it won't work.
std.ip() expects to receive a single IP address, not a collection. The conversion will fail, and the fallback value (second argument of the function) will be returned.
Here's a quick test script that illustrates this:
vcl 4.0;
import std;
backend default none;
sub vcl_recv {
set req.http.x-f = "1.2.3.4, 5.6.7.8";
return(synth(200,std.ip(req.http.x-f,"0.0.0.0")));
}
This example will return 0.0.0.0.
Does X-Forwarded-For need multiple IP addresses?
It does make sense to ask the question if your X-Forwarded-For header needs multiple IP addresses.
The idea is to indicate to the origin server what the IP address of the original client was.
In your case there is more than 1 proxy in front of the webserver, so a natural reaction is to chain the IP addresses in the X-Forwarded-For header.
A better solution would be to figure out what the IP address of the original client was, and set that value in X-Forwarded-For.
The best way to get this done is by leveraging the PROXY protocol, which Varnish supports.
Leverage the PROXY protocol
The PROXY protocol has the capability of transporting the HTTP protocol, but additionally keep track of the connection parameters of the original client.
Varnish supports this and allows you to set an extra listening port that listens for PROXY requests.
Here's an example of how you can start varnishd with PROXY support:
varnishd -a :80 -a :8443,PROXY -f /etc/varnish/default.vcl -s malloc,256m
As you can see, port 80 is still available for regular HTTP, but port 8443 was allocated for PROXY support.
If the proxy servers in front of Varnish support PROXY, Varnish will take the value from the original client and automatically set X-Forwarded-For with that value.
This way you always know who the client was, and you can safely perform your ACL check.
Additionally, there's also a PROXY module for Varnish, that can give you information about potential TLS termination that took place in front of Varnish.