Gateway auth: accept local Tailscale Serve hostnames and tailnet IPs (#885)

* Gateway auth: accept local Tailscale Serve hostnames and tailnet IPs

* fix: allow local Tailscale Serve hostnames (#885) (thanks @oswalpalash)

---------

Co-authored-by: Peter Steinberger <steipete@gmail.com>

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -42,6 +42,7 @@
 - Discord: allow emoji/sticker uploads + channel actions in config defaults. (#870) — thanks @JDIVE.
 - Fix: sanitize user-facing error text + strip `<final>` tags across reply pipelines. (#975) — thanks @ThomsenDrake.
 - Fix: normalize pairing CLI aliases, allow extension channels, and harden Zalo webhook payload parsing. (#991) — thanks @longmaba.
+- Fix: allow local Tailscale Serve hostnames without treating tailnet clients as direct. (#885) — thanks @oswalpalash.
 
 ## 2026.1.14-1
 

src/gateway/auth.test.ts

@@ -93,6 +93,34 @@ describe("gateway auth", () => {
     expect(missingProxy.reason).toBe("tailscale_proxy_missing");
   });
 
+  it("treats local tailscale serve hostnames as direct", async () => {
+    const res = await authorizeGatewayConnect({
+      auth: { mode: "none", allowTailscale: true },
+      connectAuth: null,
+      req: {
+        socket: { remoteAddress: "127.0.0.1" },
+        headers: { host: "gateway.tailnet-1234.ts.net:443" },
+      } as never,
+    });
+
+    expect(res.ok).toBe(true);
+    expect(res.method).toBe("none");
+  });
+
+  it("does not treat tailscale clients as direct", async () => {
+    const res = await authorizeGatewayConnect({
+      auth: { mode: "none", allowTailscale: true },
+      connectAuth: null,
+      req: {
+        socket: { remoteAddress: "100.64.0.42" },
+        headers: { host: "gateway.tailnet-1234.ts.net" },
+      } as never,
+    });
+
+    expect(res.ok).toBe(false);
+    expect(res.reason).toBe("tailscale_user_missing");
+  });
+
   it("allows tailscale identity to satisfy token mode auth", async () => {
     const res = await authorizeGatewayConnect({
       auth: { mode: "token", token: "secret", allowTailscale: true },

src/gateway/auth.ts

@@ -1,6 +1,9 @@
 import { timingSafeEqual } from "node:crypto";
 import type { IncomingMessage } from "node:http";
-import type { GatewayAuthConfig, GatewayTailscaleMode } from "../config/config.js";
+import type {
+  GatewayAuthConfig,
+  GatewayTailscaleMode,
+} from "../config/config.js";
 export type ResolvedGatewayAuthMode = "none" | "token" | "password";
 
 export type ResolvedGatewayAuth = {
@@ -42,20 +45,34 @@ function isLoopbackAddress(ip: string | undefined): boolean {
   return false;
 }
 
+function getHostName(hostHeader?: string): string {
+  const host = (hostHeader ?? "").trim().toLowerCase();
+  if (!host) return "";
+  if (host.startsWith("[")) {
+    const end = host.indexOf("]");
+    if (end !== -1) return host.slice(1, end);
+  }
+  const [name] = host.split(":");
+  return name ?? "";
+}
+
 function isLocalDirectRequest(req?: IncomingMessage): boolean {
   if (!req) return false;
   const clientIp = req.socket?.remoteAddress ?? "";
   if (!isLoopbackAddress(clientIp)) return false;
 
-  const host = (req.headers.host ?? "").toLowerCase();
+  const host = getHostName(req.headers?.host);
   const hostIsLocal =
-    host.startsWith("localhost") || host.startsWith("127.0.0.1") || host.startsWith("[::1]");
+    host === "localhost" || host === "127.0.0.1" || host === "::1";
+  const hostIsTailscaleServe = host.endsWith(".ts.net");
 
   const hasForwarded = Boolean(
-    req.headers["x-forwarded-for"] || req.headers["x-real-ip"] || req.headers["x-forwarded-host"],
+    req.headers?.["x-forwarded-for"] ||
+      req.headers?.["x-real-ip"] ||
+      req.headers?.["x-forwarded-host"],
   );
 
-  return hostIsLocal && !hasForwarded;
+  return (hostIsLocal || hostIsTailscaleServe) && !hasForwarded;
 }
 
 function getTailscaleUser(req?: IncomingMessage): TailscaleUser | null {
@@ -64,11 +81,17 @@ function getTailscaleUser(req?: IncomingMessage): TailscaleUser | null {
   if (typeof login !== "string" || !login.trim()) return null;
   const nameRaw = req.headers["tailscale-user-name"];
   const profilePic = req.headers["tailscale-user-profile-pic"];
-  const name = typeof nameRaw === "string" && nameRaw.trim() ? nameRaw.trim() : login.trim();
+  const name =
+    typeof nameRaw === "string" && nameRaw.trim()
+      ? nameRaw.trim()
+      : login.trim();
   return {
     login: login.trim(),
     name,
-    profilePic: typeof profilePic === "string" && profilePic.trim() ? profilePic.trim() : undefined,
+    profilePic:
+      typeof profilePic === "string" && profilePic.trim()
+        ? profilePic.trim()
+        : undefined,
   };
 }
 
@@ -76,14 +99,17 @@ function hasTailscaleProxyHeaders(req?: IncomingMessage): boolean {
   if (!req) return false;
   return Boolean(
     req.headers["x-forwarded-for"] &&
-    req.headers["x-forwarded-proto"] &&
-    req.headers["x-forwarded-host"],
+      req.headers["x-forwarded-proto"] &&
+      req.headers["x-forwarded-host"],
   );
 }
 
 function isTailscaleProxyRequest(req?: IncomingMessage): boolean {
   if (!req) return false;
-  return isLoopbackAddress(req.socket?.remoteAddress) && hasTailscaleProxyHeaders(req);
+  return (
+    isLoopbackAddress(req.socket?.remoteAddress) &&
+    hasTailscaleProxyHeaders(req)
+  );
 }
 
 export function resolveGatewayAuth(params: {
@@ -94,11 +120,13 @@ export function resolveGatewayAuth(params: {
   const authConfig = params.authConfig ?? {};
   const env = params.env ?? process.env;
   const token = authConfig.token ?? env.CLAWDBOT_GATEWAY_TOKEN ?? undefined;
-  const password = authConfig.password ?? env.CLAWDBOT_GATEWAY_PASSWORD ?? undefined;
+  const password =
+    authConfig.password ?? env.CLAWDBOT_GATEWAY_PASSWORD ?? undefined;
   const mode: ResolvedGatewayAuth["mode"] =
     authConfig.mode ?? (password ? "password" : token ? "token" : "none");
   const allowTailscale =
-    authConfig.allowTailscale ?? (params.tailscaleMode === "serve" && mode !== "password");
+    authConfig.allowTailscale ??
+    (params.tailscaleMode === "serve" && mode !== "password");
   return {
     mode,
     token,
@@ -114,7 +142,9 @@ export function assertGatewayAuthConfigured(auth: ResolvedGatewayAuth): void {
     );
   }
   if (auth.mode === "password" && !auth.password) {
-    throw new Error("gateway auth mode is password, but no password was configured");
+    throw new Error(
+      "gateway auth mode is password, but no password was configured",
+    );
   }
 }