Google Go Build code injection

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability identified as critical has been detected in Google Go. Impacted is an unknown function of the component Build Handler. This manipulation causes code injection. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2023-39323. It is possible to launch the attack on the local host. There is not any exploit available.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability has been found in Google Go (Programming Language Software) (affected version not known) and classified as critical. Affected by this vulnerability is some unknown functionality of the component Build Handler. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a code injection vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-94. The product constructs all or part of a code segment using externally-influenced input from an upstream component, but it does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes special elements that could modify the syntax or behavior of the intended code segment. As an impact it is known to affect confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

Line directives ("//line") can be used to bypass the restrictions on "//go:cgo_" directives, allowing blocked linker and compiler flags to be passed during compilation. This can result in unexpected execution of arbitrary code when running "go build". The line directive requires the absolute path of the file in which the directive lives, which makes exploiting this issue significantly more complex.

The weakness was released 10/06/2023. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2023-39323 since 07/27/2023. The technical details are unknown and an exploit is not publicly available. The pricing for an exploit might be around USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 07/17/2025). The attack technique deployed by this issue is T1059 according to MITRE ATT&CK.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 211363 (Ubuntu 22.04 LTS : Go vulnerabilities (USN-7111-1)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

There is no information about possible countermeasures known. It may be suggested to replace the affected object with an alternative product.

The vulnerability is also documented in the databases at Tenable (211363) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2023-2516). Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

Affected

• Amazon Linux 2
• Fedora Linux
• Ubuntu Linux
• F5 BIG-IP
• SUSE Linux
• Gentoo Linux
• Xerox FreeFlow Print Server
• Golang Go
• IBM DB2
• Splunk Splunk Enterprise
• IBM Spectrum Protect Plus

Productinfo

Type

• Programming Language Software

Vendor

• Google

Name

• Go

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.google.com/

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Entryinfo

Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

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