VulnerabilityPublished 11 Nov 2026

CVE-2026-97038: Building a malicious package containing ".syso" files or cgo linker inputs could inject arbitrary

Source GCVE Database

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Authoritative record:CVE-2026-97038· High

Not known to be exploited : upgrade to 1.27.4 or 1.26.11 soon.

Data as of 11 Nov 2026, 08:03 UTC

Severity

High

Rated High by Threat Radar's AI analysis · CVSS not yet scored by NVD

Thin evidence

One scorer or none

Patch: Available – fixed in 1.27.4, 1.26.11

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 11 Nov 2026
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponized: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 10 Nov 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponized: A Metasploit exploit module or Exploit-DB entry exists (Metasploit scanner modules do not count), or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

ghsa-q9p5-q4jx-v656

What to do

Upgrade cmd/go to 1.27.4 or 1.26.11.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
Go toolchaincmd/go	Affected >=1.27.0-0 <1.27.4	Fixed in 1.27.4
Go toolchaincmd/go	Affected <1.26.11	Fixed in 1.26.11
Gocmd/go`pkg:golang/cmd/go`Other threats	Affected <1.26.11 >=1.27.0-0 <1.27.4	Fixed in 1.26.11 1.27.4

Check your own hosts for these packages with threat-finder (opens in a new tab), our free open-source scanner.

AI-suggested

The Go command has been updated to validate ".syso" files, direct linker inputs, and libraries in "-L" directories to ensure they are valid binary objects or archives without unallowlisted directives or linker options. It also disallows "-l:<filename>" and certain characters in "-l" flags. Users should upgrade to the fixed Go versions that include these validations. No additional action is required beyond applying the official fix.

Description

CVE-2026-97038 is a vulnerability in the Go build process where malicious packages containing ".syso" files or cgo linker inputs can inject arbitrary linker flags or execute code at link time. This occurs because linker input files were passed to the external linker without proper validation, allowing execution of disguised linker scripts or injection of unallowlisted linker flags. The Go command now enforces validation to prevent these attacks.

Impact

An attacker who can supply malicious ".syso" files or cgo linker inputs to the Go build process could inject arbitrary linker flags or execute arbitrary code during the linking phase. This could lead to code execution or compromise of the build environment. The vulnerability affects the integrity of the build process and could be exploited to introduce malicious behavior into compiled binaries.

Summary

This vulnerability involves the Go build system improperly handling linker input files such as ".syso" files, direct object or library inputs specified in "#cgo LDFLAGS", and libraries in "-L" directories. These inputs were passed to the external linker without validating their format or checking for embedded linker options. This allowed attackers to execute GNU ld implicit linker scripts disguised as libraries or ".syso" files, inject unallowlisted linker flags via PE/COFF ".drectve" sections on Windows or Mach-O "LC_LINKER_OPTION" load commands on Darwin, or invoke LTO plugins via GCC or LLVM LTO intermediate representation sections in ELF, PE/COFF, or Mach-O objects. The Go command now verifies that these inputs are valid binary objects or archives and disallows unallowlisted directives and certain linker flags to mitigate this risk.

References

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