Go cmd/go up to 1.26.10/1.27.3 Linker code injection

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in Go cmd and go up to 1.26.10/1.27.3. It has been declared as critical. Affected is an unknown function of the component Linker. The manipulation results in code injection. This vulnerability was named CVE-2026-97038. The attack may be performed from remote. There is no available exploit. It is recommended to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Go cmd and go up to 1.26.10/1.27.3. It has been classified as critical. Affected is some unknown processing of the component Linker. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a code injection vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as 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. This is going to have an impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability. CVE summarizes:

Building a malicious package containing ".syso" files or cgo linker inputs could inject arbitrary linker flags or execute arbitrary code at link time. Linker input files—including ".syso" files, direct object or library inputs in "#cgo LDFLAGS", and libraries in "-L" directories—were passed to the external linker without validating their format or checking for embedded linker options. Across platforms, this allowed executing GNU ld implicit linker scripts disguised as libraries or ".syso" files (or loaded via "-l:<filename>" or "-l" containing path separators), injecting unallowlisted linker flags via PE/COFF ".drectve" sections on Windows or Mach-O "LC_LINKER_OPTION" load commands on Darwin, or invoking LTO plugins via GCC or LLVM LTO intermediate representation sections in ELF, PE/COFF, or Mach-O objects. The go command now verifies that ".syso" files, direct linker inputs, and libraries in "-L" directories are valid binary objects or archives that do not contain unallowlisted ".drectve" directives, "LC_LINKER_OPTION" load commands, or LTO IR sections, and disallows "-l:<filename>" and ":", "=", or path separators in "-l" flags.

This vulnerability is traded as CVE-2026-97038 since 09/24/2026. The exploitability is told to be easy. It is possible to launch the attack remotely. The exploitation doesn't require any form of authentication. Successful exploitation requires user interaction by the victim. There are neither technical details nor an exploit publicly available. The MITRE ATT&CK project declares the attack technique as T1059.

Upgrading to version 1.26.11 or 1.27.4 eliminates this vulnerability.

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Productinfo

Vendor

• Go

Name

• cmd
• go

Version

• 1.26.0
• 1.26.1
• 1.26.2
• 1.26.3
• 1.26.4
• 1.26.5
• 1.26.6
• 1.26.7
• 1.26.8
• 1.26.9
• 1.26.10
• 1.27.0
• 1.27.1
• 1.27.2
• 1.27.3

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