CVE-2026-97043: Building a malicious package that uses cgo could bypass "#cgo LDFLAGS" validation and cause unexpected code execution at build time, or cause the go command to

Building a malicious package that uses cgo could bypass "#cgo LDFLAGS" validation and cause unexpected code execution at build time, or cause the go command to

Building a malicious package that uses cgo could bypass "#cgo LDFLAGS" validation and cause unexpected code execution at build time, or cause the go command to panic, via crafted quoting in "//go:cgo_ldflag" directives. When "cmd/cgo" generates "_cgo_gotypes.go", it quotes each "#cgo LDFLAGS" argument with strconv.Quote in a "//go:cgo_ldflag" directive, but "cmd/compile" and "cmd/go" parsed those directives by splitting on raw quote characters without handling backslash escapes or unquoting the string. This mismatch allowed disallowed linker flags or unvalidated linker search paths to be smuggled past the go command's flag checks and passed to the external linker. In addition, deduplicating LDFLAGS in the go command could panic with an out-of-bounds slice index when a prefix of the flag list matched near the end of the slice. "cmd/compile" and "cmd/go" now properly handle backslash-escaped quotes and unquote "//go:cgo_*" pragma strings with strconv.Unquote, and the slice bounds check in processCgoOutputs has been fixed.

Description from the National Vulnerability Database, published by security@golang.org

What it means for a small business

If your business uses cmd/go, install the vendor's update. If you're not sure whether you use it, ask whoever manages your computers.

How likely is an attack? The Exploit Prediction Scoring System, run by FIRST (the global association of security response teams), puts the odds of this one being exploited in the next 30 days at 0.26%, higher than 18% of CVEs. That’s low, but low isn’t zero, and the odds jump the day someone publishes an exploit. Scored November 15, 2026, updated daily.

Check your own setup

Website check: reads what your site runs from the outside (WordPress version, plugins it can see, old server software) and matches it against this database.
Server check: what your web server says about itself, and whether that version has known flaws.

Sources

Part of the Huttenlocher Technologies vulnerability database, refreshed twice a day from CISA and the NVD. The title, category and plain-language guidance are ours; check the linked record before acting on a detail. This is general guidance, not a review of your systems.

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