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CVE-2023-24538

Backticks not treated as string delimiters in html/template

Published: Apr 6, 2023Updated: Feb 12, 2025 Sources: CVE List NVD BDU csafCWE-94
9.8CVSSCRITICAL

Description

Templates do not properly consider backticks (`) as Javascript string delimiters, and do not escape them as expected. Backticks are used, since ES6, for JS template literals. If a template contains a Go template action within a Javascript template literal, the contents of the action can be used to terminate the literal, injecting arbitrary Javascript code into the Go template. As ES6 template literals are rather complex, and themselves can do string interpolation, the decision was made to simply disallow Go template actions from being used inside of them (e.g. "var a = {{.}}"), since there is no obviously safe way to allow this behavior. This takes the same approach as github.com/google/safehtml. With fix, Template.Parse returns an Error when it encounters templates like this, with an ErrorCode of value 12. This ErrorCode is currently unexported, but will be exported in the release of Go 1.21. Users who rely on the previous behavior can re-enable it using the GODEBUG flag jstmpllitinterp=1, with the caveat that backticks will now be escaped. This should be used with caution.

CVSS Vector Breakdown

AV:NAC:LPR:NUI:NS:UC:HI:HA:H
Exploitability
AV:NAttack Vector
Network
AC:LAttack Complexity
Low
PR:NPrivileges Required
None
UI:NUser Interaction
None
Scope
S:UScope
Unchanged
Impact
C:HConfidentiality
High
I:HIntegrity
High
A:HAvailability
High

Weaknesses

Affected Products

canonical ltd.commercialGBOperating Systemsaka canonical
red hat inc.commercialUSOperating Systemsaka red hat
and 40 more affected products View all →

Attack Graph

Products CVE Techniques Tactics

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Exploitability

Official Patch Available

MITRE ATT&CK

2 techniques
Execution
Initial Access
View detailed technique mapping

References

and 25 more references View all →

Timeline

Published
Apr 6, 2023
Last Updated
Feb 12, 2025

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