apache/pulsar · error · IllegalArgumentException

Invalid IP address filter '${ipAddressString}'

Error message

Invalid IP address filter '${ipAddressString}'

What it means

BrokerProxyValidator parses the proxy's allowed IP address filters into IPAddressString objects; any entry that is not a syntactically valid IP address or CIDR throws IllegalArgumentException immediately at validator construction. The message includes the offending filter string and the underlying address parse exception.

Source

Thrown at pulsar-proxy/src/main/java/org/apache/pulsar/proxy/server/BrokerProxyValidator.java:74

            this.allowAnyHostName = true;
            this.allowedHostNames = Collections.emptyList();
        } else {
            this.allowAnyHostName = false;
            this.allowedHostNames = allowedHostNamesStrings.stream()
                    .map(BrokerProxyValidator::parseWildcardPattern).collect(Collectors.toList());
        }
        List<String> allowedIPAddressesStrings = parseCommaSeparatedConfigValue(allowedIPAddresses);
        if (allowedIPAddressesStrings.contains(ALLOW_ANY)) {
            allowAnyIPAddress = true;
            this.allowedIPAddresses = Collections.emptyList();
        } else {
            allowAnyIPAddress = false;
            this.allowedIPAddresses = allowedIPAddressesStrings.stream().map(IPAddressString::new)
                    .filter(ipAddressString -> {
                        if (ipAddressString.isValid()) {
                            return true;
                        } else {
                            throw new IllegalArgumentException("Invalid IP address filter '" + ipAddressString + "'",
                                    ipAddressString.getAddressStringException());
                        }
                    }).map(IPAddressString::getAddress)
                    .filter(Objects::nonNull)
                    .collect(Collectors.toList());
        }
        List<String> allowedTargetPortsStrings = parseCommaSeparatedConfigValue(allowedTargetPorts);
        if (allowedTargetPortsStrings.contains(ALLOW_ANY)) {
            allowAnyTargetPort = true;
            this.allowedTargetPorts = new int[0];
        } else {
            allowAnyTargetPort = false;
            this.allowedTargetPorts =
                    allowedTargetPortsStrings.stream().mapToInt(Integer::parseInt).toArray();
        }
    }

    private static Pattern parseWildcardPattern(String wildcardPattern) {

View on GitHub (pinned to 820761864e)

Solutions

1. Fix the offending filter string shown in the message to a valid IP or CIDR (e.g. 10.0.0.0/24, 2001:db8::/32)
2. Remove any hostname entries — the filter accepts IP addresses/subnets, not DNS names
3. Validate each entry with an IP/CIDR calculator before adding it to the config
4. Restart the proxy and confirm the validator initializes without error

Example fix

// before
brokerProxyAllowedIPAddresses=10.0.0.0/24,mybroker.example.com
// after
brokerProxyAllowedIPAddresses=10.0.0.0/24,192.168.1.5

// Validate every filter entry before writing proxy config
for (String s : allowedIpStrings.split(",")) {
    IPAddressString ips = new IPAddressString(s.trim());
    if (!ips.isValid()) throw new IllegalArgumentException("Bad IP filter: " + s + " -> " + ips.getAddressStringException());
}

boolean isValidIpFilter(String s) {
    IPAddressString ips = new IPAddressString(s.trim());
    return ips.isValid() && ips.getAddress() != null;
}

try { new BrokerProxyValidator(conf); } catch (IllegalArgumentException e) { log.error("Fix IP filter config: {}", e.getMessage()); throw e; }

When it happens

Trigger: Constructing BrokerProxyValidator with configuration containing an invalid entry in the IP allow list (e.g. proxyilaterally 'brokerProxyAllowedIPAddresses' style settings): typos, hostnames instead of IPs, malformed CIDR like '10.0.0.0/33'.

Common situations: Putting hostnames in an IP filter list; CIDR with an out-of-range prefix; stray whitespace or characters; IPv6 notation errors; copy-paste with comma/semicolon confusion.

Related errors

• httpReverseProxy.%s.path must be specified exactly once
• httpReverseProxy.%s.proxyTo must be specified exactly once
• Timeout during delete operation
• Timeout during close operation
• Timeout during open-cursor operation

AI-assisted analysis of apache/pulsar@820761864e (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/26b40c78f7fcf618. Report an issue: GitHub.