CVE-2023-45283
Insecure parsing of Windows paths with a \??\ prefix in path/filepath
- Published
- Updated
- Reserved
- Assigned by
- Go
Description
The filepath package does not recognize paths with a \??\ prefix as special. On Windows, a path beginning with \??\ is a Root Local Device path equivalent to a path beginning with \\?\. Paths with a \??\ prefix may be used to access arbitrary locations on the system. For example, the path \??\c:\x is equivalent to the more common path c:\x. Before fix, Clean could convert a rooted path such as \a\..\??\b into the root local device path \??\b. Clean will now convert this to .\??\b. Similarly, Join(\, ??, b) could convert a seemingly innocent sequence of path elements into the root local device path \??\b. Join will now convert this to \.\??\b. In addition, with fix, IsAbs now correctly reports paths beginning with \??\ as absolute, and VolumeName correctly reports the \??\ prefix as a volume name. UPDATE: Go 1.20.11 and Go 1.21.4 inadvertently changed the definition of the volume name in Windows paths starting with \?, resulting in filepath.Clean(\?\c:) returning \?\c: rather than \?\c:\ (among other effects). The previous behavior has been restored.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| NVDNVD · Modified | 3.1 | High7.5 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 3.3% · top 11% of all CVEs (7 Nov 2026)
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: High 7.5.
Weakness
- CWE-41: Improper Resolution of Path Equivalence
- CWE-22 (opens in a new tab)All about CWE-22 and its CVEs
Affected products
Go standard library · path/filepath
- affected < 1.20.11
- affected 1.21.0-0 – < 1.21.4
Go standard library · internal/safefilepath
- affected < 1.20.11
- affected 1.21.0-0 – < 1.21.4
Go standard library · path/filepath
- affected 1.20.11 – < 1.20.12
- affected 1.21.4 – < 1.21.5
References (9)
- https://go.dev/issue/63713 (opens in a new tab)x_transferred
- https://go.dev/cl/540277 (opens in a new tab)x_transferred
- https://groups.google.com/g/golang-announce/c/4tU8LZfBFkY (opens in a new tab)x_transferred
- https://go.dev/issue/64028 (opens in a new tab)x_transferred
- https://go.dev/cl/541175 (opens in a new tab)x_transferred
- https://groups.google.com/g/golang-dev/c/6ypN5EjibjM/m/KmLVYH_uAgAJ (opens in a new tab)x_transferred
- https://pkg.go.dev/vuln/GO-2023-2185 (opens in a new tab)x_transferred
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/12/05/2 (opens in a new tab)x_transferred
- https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20231214-0008/ (opens in a new tab)x_transferred
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://trackcve.app/cve/CVE-2023-45283)Record last updated .