Unsafe behavior in setuid/setgid binaries in runtime

HIGH 7.8CVE-2023-29403 · BIT-golang-2023-29403 · GO-2023-1840 · Published 08/06/2023 · updated 17/06/2026

In short

CVE-2023-29403 is a HIGH (CVSS 7.8) vulnerability affecting stdlib, go (golang).
Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days (EPSS): 0.43%, higher than 37.1% of all vulnerabilities.
Fix: update to 1.20.5, 1.19.10 or later.

Package	Affected versions	Patched versions
stdlib Go	`≥ 1.20.0-0, < 1.20.5< 1.19.10`	`1.20.51.19.10`
go golang	`≥ 1.20.0, < 1.20.5< 1.19.10`	`1.20.51.19.10`

Description

If a setuid/setgid binary is executed with standard I/O file descriptors closed, opening any files can result in unexpected content being read or written with elevated privileges. Similarly, if a setuid/setgid program is terminated, either via panic or signal, it may leak the contents of its registers.

NVD description

On Unix platforms, the Go runtime does not behave differently when a binary is run with the setuid/setgid bits. This can be dangerous in certain cases, such as when dumping memory state, or assuming the status of standard i/o file descriptors. If a setuid/setgid binary is executed with standard I/O file descriptors closed, opening any files can result in unexpected content being read or written with elevated privileges. Similarly, if a setuid/setgid program is terminated, either via panic or signal, it may leak the contents of its registers.