VulnerabilityPublished 26 Sep 2026Updated 28 Sep 2026

CVE-2026-100692: gohugoio hugo · Link Following

Affects gohugoio hugoSource CVE Database V5

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Not known to be exploited · CVSS 8.7 High : upgrade to 0.166.0 soon.

Data as of 8 Nov 2026, 23:24 UTC

CVSS 4.0 base score

8.7High

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 36% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch: Available – fixed in 0.166.0

CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Attack Requirements: None
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Vulnerable system confidentiality: High
Vulnerable system integrity: None
Vulnerable system availability: None
Subsequent system confidentiality: None
Subsequent system integrity: None
Subsequent system availability: None

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable system is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed below, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed “remotely exploitable” and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers).
Attack Complexity: Low: The attacker must take no measurable action to exploit the vulnerability. The attack requires no target-specific circumvention to exploit the vulnerability. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable system.
Attack Requirements: None: The successful attack does not depend on the deployment and execution conditions of the vulnerable system. The attacker can expect to be able to reach the vulnerability and execute the exploit under all or most instances of the vulnerability.
Privileges Required: None: The attacker is unauthorized prior to attack, and therefore does not require any access to settings or files of the vulnerable system to carry out an attack.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without interaction from any human user, other than the attacker.
Vulnerable system confidentiality: High: There is a total loss of confidentiality, resulting in all information within the Vulnerable System being divulged to the attacker. Alternatively, access to only some restricted information is obtained, but the disclosed information presents a direct, serious impact. For example, an attacker steals the administrator's password, or private encryption keys of a web server.
Vulnerable system integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the Vulnerable System.
Vulnerable system availability: None: There is no impact to availability within the Vulnerable System.
Subsequent system confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the Subsequent System or all confidentiality impact is constrained to the Vulnerable System.
Subsequent system integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the Subsequent System or all integrity impact is constrained to the Vulnerable System.
Subsequent system availability: None: There is no impact to availability within the Subsequent System or all availability impact is constrained to the Vulnerable System.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v4.0 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 26 Sep 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 9 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-m29q-9cm9-wcf6

What to do

Upgrade hugo and github.com/gohugoio/hugo to 0.166.0.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
gohugoiohugo	Affected <0.166.0	Fixed in 0.166.0
Gogithub.com/gohugoio/hugo`pkg:golang/github.com/gohugoio/hugo`Other threats	Affected <0.166.0	Fixed in 0.166.0

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

AI-suggested

Upgrade Hugo to version 0.166.0 or later, where the vulnerability is fixed by improved symlink handling. As a workaround, inspect themes/ and vendored modules for symlinks at mount roots before building and remove or replace them with explicit mounts. No other vendor advisory mitigation instructions are provided.

Description

CVE-2026-100692 is a high-severity vulnerability in the Hugo static site generator affecting versions before 0.166.0. It involves improper link resolution before file access, allowing symlinks at mount roots in themes or vendored modules to expose files outside intended directories during site builds. This could lead to unauthorized reading and publishing of files outside the local theme or module paths. The issue is fixed in version 0.166.0 by treating symlinked mount roots and intermediate symlinked directories as non-existent. Modules fetched via Go modules are not affected due to their inability to contain symlinks. Users should inspect and remove symlinks in themes and vendored modules or upgrade to the fixed version.

Impact

An attacker or malicious theme/module maintainer could craft symlinks at mount roots to expose files outside the intended local directories during site builds. This could lead to unauthorized disclosure of sensitive files by reading and publishing them to the public directory. The vulnerability affects Hugo users who build sites with themes or vendored modules containing such symlinks. Modules fetched via Go modules are not impacted. There is no known exploitation in the wild as of the published date.

Summary

Hugo versions after v0.123.0 and before v0.166.0 have a vulnerability where symlink confinement checks stop at the mount root, allowing symlinks at mount roots in themes or vendored modules to point outside the intended directory tree. This enables files behind such symlinks to be read during site builds via functions like resources.Get and resources.Match, and potentially published to the public directory, bypassing local path restrictions. The vulnerability does not affect modules fetched via Go modules since their zips cannot contain symlinks. The issue is resolved in v0.166.0 by treating symlinked mount roots and symlinked directories between the mount root and module directory as non-existent, preventing access through symlinks.

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Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 17 Oct 2026, 22:51 UTC

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