Accept only an origin written exactly as a browser sends it (closes #61)

access_control_allow_origin is now "*", or http or https, a host that is
an IP address as net/netip writes it (IPv6 in brackets) or a lowercase
host name whose last part contains a letter, and an optional port 1-65535
with no leading zero that is not the scheme's default. The value must
equal the origin rebuilt from those parts; anything else aborts startup
naming the key, its variable and the value. README.md and
config.example.yml say an origin is scheme, host and optional port,
exactly as the browser sends it.

Model: opus-5-5

README.md

@@ -200,8 +200,9 @@ Key settings in more detail:
 
 - `access_control_allow_origin` — the origin a browser lets read pixa's
   responses, sent as the CORS `Access-Control-Allow-Origin` header: `*`, the
-  default, is any site; otherwise one origin, scheme and host only, such as
+  default, is any site; otherwise one origin: scheme, host and optional port,
-  `https://example.com`. Anything else aborts startup
+  exactly as the browser sends it, such as `https://example.com`. Anything
+  else aborts startup
 - `allowlist_hosts` — list of allowed upstream hosts
 - `blocked_networks` — list of CIDR ranges to refuse for SSRF protection,
   added to the always-enforced built-in ranges (loopback, private,

TODO.md

@@ -38,9 +38,9 @@ exhaustion
   server's write timeout and the per-request timeout); each has a
   `PIXA_` variable; durations are positive Go duration strings, the size a
   whole number of bytes up to 1 GiB, the origin `*` or one scheme, host
-  name or IP address and optional port; an invalid value aborts startup
+  and optional port, exactly as the browser sends it; an invalid value
-  naming the key and the value; documented in `config.example.yml` and
+  aborts startup naming the key and the value; documented in
-  `README.md`.
+  `config.example.yml` and `README.md`.
 - 2026-09-28 refuse an unparseable `exp` on `/v1/image/` and log swallowed
   cache errors (closes #72): an `exp` in the URL that is not a whole
   number, an empty `exp=` included, is a 400 naming `exp` and the value,

config.example.yml

@@ -78,7 +78,8 @@ downstream_timeout: 60s
 
 # The origin a browser lets read pixa's responses, sent as the CORS
 # Access-Control-Allow-Origin header: "*" (the default) is any site;
-# otherwise one origin, scheme and host only, such as https://example.com
+# otherwise one origin: scheme, host and optional port, exactly as the
+# browser sends it, such as https://example.com
 access_control_allow_origin: "*"
 
 # Maximum disk cache size in bytes. Explicit values are used exactly as

internal/config/config.go

@@ -624,13 +624,9 @@ func (c *Config) validateUpstreamMaxResponseSize() error {
 	return nil
 }
 
-// validateAccessControlAllowOrigin checks that access_control_allow_origin
+// validateAccessControlAllowOrigin accepts "*" or an origin exactly as a browser
-// is "*" or one origin as browsers send it in the Origin header: a scheme,
+// sends it: http or https, an IP address as netip writes it or a lowercase name
-// a host name or IP address, and optionally a port from 1 to 65535, with
+// with a letter in its last part, and an optional port 1-65535, not the default.
-// nothing after them. Anything else, such as a bare hostname or a trailing
-// slash, would match no request. A "*" is not allowed in a host name, so
-// https://*example.com is refused; the CORS middleware would read that
-// "*" as a pattern and let other sites read responses.
 func (c *Config) validateAccessControlAllowOrigin() error {
 	origin := c.AccessControlAllowOrigin
 	if origin == "*" {
@@ -640,50 +636,54 @@ func (c *Config) validateAccessControlAllowOrigin() error {
 	errOrigin := fmt.Errorf("%s: value %q is %w",
 		settingName(keyAccessControlAllowOrigin), origin, errNotAnOrigin)
 
-	// url.Parse accepts an empty port, as in https://example.com:, and
-	// then reports no port, so a trailing colon is refused here.
 	parsed, err := url.Parse(origin)
-	if err != nil || parsed.Scheme+"://"+parsed.Host != origin ||
+	if err != nil {
-		strings.HasSuffix(origin, ":") {
 		return errOrigin
 	}
 
+	defaultPort := map[string]string{"http": "80", "https": "443"}[parsed.Scheme]
+	if defaultPort == "" {
+		return errOrigin
+	}
+
+	const letters = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz"
+
 	host := parsed.Hostname()
+	lastPart := host[strings.LastIndex(host, ".")+1:]
 
-	_, err = netip.ParseAddr(host)
+	addr, err := netip.ParseAddr(host)
-	if err != nil && !isHostName(host) {
+
+	switch {
+	case err == nil && addr.Is6():
+		host = "[" + addr.String() + "]"
+	case err == nil:
+		host = addr.String()
+	case strings.Trim(host, letters+"0123456789-.") != "": // a character other than these
+		return errOrigin
+	case !strings.ContainsAny(lastPart, letters):
 		return errOrigin
 	}
 
-	// A port is a 16-bit number, and 0 is not a port a browser sends.
+	// The value must be exactly the origin rebuilt from its parts.
-	if parsed.Port() != "" {
+	rebuilt := parsed.Scheme + "://" + host
-		port, err := strconv.ParseUint(parsed.Port(), 10, 16)
+
-		if err != nil || port == 0 {
+	port := parsed.Port()
+	if port != "" {
+		_, err := strconv.ParseUint(port, 10, 16)
+		if err != nil || port[0] == '0' || port == defaultPort {
 			return errOrigin
 		}
+
+		rebuilt += ":" + port
+	}
+
+	if rebuilt != origin {
+		return errOrigin
 	}
 
 	return nil
 }
 
-// isHostName reports whether host is not empty and has only ASCII
-// letters, digits, hyphens and dots.
-func isHostName(host string) bool {
-	if host == "" {
-		return false
-	}
-
-	for _, r := range host {
-		isLetterOrDigit := 'a' <= r && r <= 'z' || 'A' <= r && r <= 'Z' ||
-			'0' <= r && r <= '9'
-		if !isLetterOrDigit && r != '-' && r != '.' {
-			return false
-		}
-	}
-
-	return true
-}
-
 // validateAllowlistHost checks that an allowlist_hosts entry is a bare
 // hostname, optionally with a leading dot for suffix matching. URLs,
 // paths, and whitespace indicate a misconfigured entry. An entry with