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CVE-2020-28366

golang: malicious symbol names can lead to code execution at build time

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Severity

Moderate

Red Hat Product Security

7.5

CVSS 3.1

Review impact separately from score.

Published · November 12, 2020

Updated · June 28, 2026

Description

An input validation vulnerability was found in Go. From a generated go file (from the cgo tool), it is possible to modify symbols within that object file and specify code. This flaw allows an attacker to create a repository that includes malicious pre-built object files that could execute arbitrary code when downloaded and run via go get or go build while building a Go project. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to confidentiality, integrity, as well as system availability.

Statement

While OpenShift Container Platform (OCP), Red Hat OpenShift Jaeger (RHOSJ), OpenShift Service Mesh (OSSM), and OpenShift Virtualization all contain RPMs and containers which are compiled with a vulnerable version of Go, the vulnerability is specific to the building of Go code itself. Using go get or go build and as such, the relevant components have been marked as not affected.

Additionally, only the main RPMs and containers for OCP, RHOSJ, OSSM, and OpenShift Virtualization are represented due to the large volume of not affected components.

Red Hat Ceph Storage 3 ships the vulnerable version of go, and an attacker building go code on RHCS 3 could potentially exploit this vulnerability.

CVSS score applicability

The CVSS score(s) listed for this vulnerability do not reflect the associated product's status, and are included for informational purposes to better understand the severity of this vulnerability.

Mitigation

If it's possible to confirm that the Go project being built does not rely on any cgo code in the included dependencies, the env variable CGO_ENABLED=0 can be specified when using either go get or go build.

For example: CGO_ENABLED=0 go get github.com/someproject

This will not stop the files being downloaded but will stop any automatic complication of the cgo code, including inlined in the go file and separate .c files. Of course, this will only be effective if cgo is not relied upon in a given dependency and may not be appropriate in all scenarios.

CVSS / CWE

CVSS 3.1 · 7.5
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

CWE-20 · Improper Input Validation