diff --git a/modules/caddyhttp/caddyhttp.go b/modules/caddyhttp/caddyhttp.go
index 761c37a54..9fe40a13d 100644
--- a/modules/caddyhttp/caddyhttp.go
+++ b/modules/caddyhttp/caddyhttp.go
@@ -275,28 +275,50 @@ func SanitizedPathJoin(root, reqPath string) string {
 
 // CleanPath cleans path p according to path.Clean(), but only
 // merges repeated slashes if collapseSlashes is true, and always
-// preserves trailing slashes.
+// preserves trailing slashes. Path bytes, including invalid UTF-8, are preserved.
 func CleanPath(p string, collapseSlashes bool) string {
-	if collapseSlashes {
+	if collapseSlashes || !strings.Contains(p, "//") {
 		return cleanPath(p)
 	}
 
-	// insert an invalid/impossible URI character into each two consecutive
-	// slashes to expand empty path segments; then clean the path as usual,
-	// and then remove the remaining temporary characters.
-	const tmpCh = 0xff
-	var sb strings.Builder
-	sb.Grow(len(p) + 1)
-	for i, ch := range p {
-		if ch == '/' && i > 0 && p[i-1] == '/' {
-			sb.WriteByte(tmpCh)
+	rooted := strings.HasPrefix(p, "/")
+	trailing := strings.HasSuffix(p, "/")
+	segments := strings.Split(p, "/")
+	if rooted {
+		segments = segments[1:]
+	}
+	if trailing && len(segments) > 0 {
+		segments = segments[:len(segments)-1]
+	}
+	cleaned := segments[:0]
+	for _, segment := range segments {
+		switch segment {
+		case ".":
+		case "..":
+			if len(cleaned) > 0 && cleaned[len(cleaned)-1] != ".." {
+				cleaned = cleaned[:len(cleaned)-1]
+			} else if !rooted {
+				cleaned = append(cleaned, segment)
+			}
+		default:
+			cleaned = append(cleaned, segment)
 		}
-		sb.WriteRune(ch)
+	}
+	result := strings.Join(cleaned, "/")
+	if rooted {
+		result = "/" + result
+	}
+	if trailing && len(cleaned) > 0 {
+		result += "/"
+	}
+	if result == "" && len(cleaned) == 0 {
+		result = "."
+		if trailing {
+			result += "/"
+		}
 	}
-	halfCleaned := cleanPath(sb.String())
-	halfCleaned = strings.ReplaceAll(halfCleaned, string([]byte{tmpCh}), "")
 
-	return halfCleaned
+	return result
 }
 
 // cleanPath does path.Clean(p) but preserves any trailing slash.
diff --git a/modules/caddyhttp/caddyhttp_test.go b/modules/caddyhttp/caddyhttp_test.go
index aeed0135c..2a694ae13 100644
--- a/modules/caddyhttp/caddyhttp_test.go
+++ b/modules/caddyhttp/caddyhttp_test.go
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ import (
 	"net/url"
 	"path/filepath"
 	"runtime"
+	"strings"
 	"testing"
 )
 
@@ -147,6 +148,65 @@ func TestSanitizedPathJoin(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
+func TestCleanPathPreservesBytes(t *testing.T) {
+	for b := 0; b < 256; b++ {
+		if b == '/' {
+			continue
+		}
+		input := "/public//byte" + string([]byte{byte(b)}) + "/file"
+		if got := CleanPath(input, false); got != input {
+			t.Errorf("CleanPath(%q, false) = %q; want unchanged bytes", input, got)
+		}
+	}
+	for _, tc := range []struct {
+		input, want string
+	}{
+		{"/\xff//a/../\xfe/", "/\xff//\xfe/"},
+		{"/Äpfel//./�/../\xff", "/Äpfel//\xff"},
+		{"//", "//"},
+		{"///", "///"},
+		{"//.", "/"},
+		{"//..", "/"},
+		{"a/..//b", "/b"},
+		{".//", "/"},
+		{"a//../../..", ".."},
+		{"", "."},
+		{"./", "./"},
+		{"../", "../"},
+	} {
+		if got := CleanPath(tc.input, false); got != tc.want {
+			t.Errorf("CleanPath(%q, false) = %q; want %q", tc.input, got, tc.want)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+func TestCleanPathSlashPreservingSemantics(t *testing.T) {
+	var check func([]string, int)
+	check = func(segments []string, depth int) {
+		p := strings.Join(segments, "/")
+		for _, input := range []string{p, "/" + p, p + "/", "/" + p + "/"} {
+			var marked strings.Builder
+			for i := 0; i < len(input); i++ {
+				if input[i] == '/' && i > 0 && input[i-1] == '/' {
+					marked.WriteByte(0)
+				}
+				marked.WriteByte(input[i])
+			}
+			want := strings.ReplaceAll(cleanPath(marked.String()), "\x00", "")
+			if got := CleanPath(input, false); got != want {
+				t.Errorf("CleanPath(%q, false) = %q; want %q", input, got, want)
+			}
+		}
+		if depth == 0 {
+			return
+		}
+		for _, segment := range []string{"", "a", ".", "..", "Ä", "%2f", "a\xff"} {
+			check(append(segments, segment), depth-1)
+		}
+	}
+	check(nil, 4)
+}
+
 func TestCleanPath(t *testing.T) {
 	for i, tc := range []struct {
 		input        string
diff --git a/modules/caddyhttp/matchers.go b/modules/caddyhttp/matchers.go
index a7c431b5c..e977bf770 100644
--- a/modules/caddyhttp/matchers.go
+++ b/modules/caddyhttp/matchers.go
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ import (
 	"sort"
 	"strconv"
 	"strings"
+	"unicode"
 	"unicode/utf8"
 
 	"cel.dev/cel-go/cel"
@@ -419,7 +420,7 @@ func (m MatchPath) Provision(_ caddy.Context) error {
 			break
 		}
 		if !strings.Contains(m[i], "{") {
-			m[i] = strings.ToLower(m[i])
+			m[i] = lowerPath(m[i])
 		}
 	}
 	return nil
@@ -439,13 +440,13 @@ func (m MatchPath) MatchWithError(r *http.Request) (bool, error) {
 	// related to differences between operating systems, applications,
 	// etc; if case-sensitive matching is needed, the regex matcher
 	// can be used instead.
-	reqPath := normalizeWindowsPath(strings.ToLower(r.URL.Path))
+	reqPath := normalizeWindowsPath(lowerPath(r.URL.Path))
 
 	repl := r.Context().Value(caddy.ReplacerCtxKey).(*caddy.Replacer)
 
 	for _, matchPattern := range m {
 		if strings.Contains(matchPattern, "{") {
-			matchPattern = strings.ToLower(repl.ReplaceAll(matchPattern, ""))
+			matchPattern = lowerPath(repl.ReplaceAll(matchPattern, ""))
 		}
 
 		// special case: whole path is wildcard; this is unnecessary
@@ -543,7 +544,7 @@ func (m MatchPath) MatchWithError(r *http.Request) (bool, error) {
 }
 
 func (MatchPath) matchPatternWithEscapeSequence(escapedPath, matchPath string) bool {
-	escapedPath = strings.ToLower(escapedPath)
+	escapedPath = lowerPath(escapedPath)
 	// We would just compare the pattern against r.URL.Path,
 	// but the pattern contains %, indicating that we should
 	// compare at least some part of the path in raw/escaped
@@ -660,10 +661,29 @@ func (MatchPath) matchPatternWithEscapeSequence(escapedPath, matchPath string) b
 	matchPath = strings.ReplaceAll(matchPath, "%*", "*")
 
 	// ignore error here because we can't handle it anyway
-	matches, _ := path.Match(matchPath, strings.ToLower(sb.String()))
+	matches, _ := path.Match(matchPath, lowerPath(sb.String()))
 	return matches
 }
 
+// lowerPath lowercases Unicode text without replacing invalid UTF-8 path bytes.
+func lowerPath(p string) string {
+	if utf8.ValidString(p) {
+		return strings.ToLower(p)
+	}
+	var sb strings.Builder
+	sb.Grow(len(p))
+	for len(p) > 0 {
+		ch, size := utf8.DecodeRuneInString(p)
+		if ch == utf8.RuneError && size == 1 {
+			sb.WriteByte(p[0])
+		} else {
+			sb.WriteRune(unicode.ToLower(ch))
+		}
+		p = p[size:]
+	}
+	return sb.String()
+}
+
 // windowsEscapedPathSeparatorRepl normalizes Windows backslash separators
 // while preserving escaped-path matching semantics.
 var windowsEscapedPathSeparatorRepl = strings.NewReplacer(
diff --git a/modules/caddyhttp/matchers_test.go b/modules/caddyhttp/matchers_test.go
index 28c83e214..e8208fa72 100644
--- a/modules/caddyhttp/matchers_test.go
+++ b/modules/caddyhttp/matchers_test.go
@@ -553,6 +553,59 @@ func TestEscapedPathWildcardCursor(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
+func TestLowerPathPreservesInvalidUTF8(t *testing.T) {
+	for b := 128; b < 256; b++ {
+		pathByte := string([]byte{byte(b)})
+		input := "Ä" + pathByte + "Σ"
+		want := "ä" + pathByte + "σ"
+		if got := lowerPath(input); got != want {
+			t.Errorf("lowerPath(%q) = %q; want %q", input, got, want)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+func TestPathMatcherPreservesInvalidUTF8(t *testing.T) {
+	for _, tc := range []struct {
+		pattern, target string
+		want            bool
+	}{
+		{"/public//�", "/public/%ff", false},
+		{"/public//�", "/public//%EF%BF%BD", true},
+		{"/public//�", "/public//%ff", false},
+		{"/public/�", "/public/%ff", false},
+		{"/public//�", "/public//%80", false},
+		{"/public//�", "/public//%c0%af", false},
+		{"/public//�", "/public//%ef%bf", false},
+		{"/public//�", "/public//%ed%a0%80", false},
+		{"/public//�%2fend", "/public//%ff%2fend", false},
+		{"/public//*�%2f", "/public//%ff%2f", false},
+		{"/public//�%2fend", "/public//%ef%bf%bd%2fend", true},
+		{"/ÄPFEL//Σ/İ", "/%c3%a4pfel//%cf%83/i", true},
+		{"/Ä*%2f", "/%C3%84pfel%2f", true},
+		{"/Ä//\xff", "/%c3%a4//%ff", true},
+		{"/Ä//\xff", "/%c3%a4//%ef%bf%bd", false},
+	} {
+		t.Run(tc.pattern+" "+tc.target, func(t *testing.T) {
+			for _, dynamic := range []bool{false, true} {
+				m := MatchPath{tc.pattern}
+				r := httptest.NewRequest(http.MethodGet, tc.target, nil)
+				repl := NewTestReplacer(r)
+				if dynamic {
+					m[0] = "{test.path}"
+					repl.Set("test.path", tc.pattern)
+				}
+				if err := m.Provision(caddy.Context{}); err != nil {
+					t.Fatal(err)
+				}
+				got, err := m.MatchWithError(r)
+				if err != nil || got != tc.want {
+					t.Errorf("dynamic=%t: match = %t, %v; want %t", dynamic, got, err, tc.want)
+				}
+			}
+		})
+	}
+}
+
 func TestPathMatcherWindows(t *testing.T) {
 	// only Windows has this bug where it will ignore
 	// trailing dots and spaces in a filename