CVE-2020-29510 : What You Need to Know

The encoding/xml package in Go versions 1.15 and earlier has a vulnerability that allows attackers to manipulate inputs, leading to conflicting behaviors in downstream applications.

Understanding CVE-2020-29510

This CVE involves a security issue in the Go programming language that affects versions 1.15 and below.

What is CVE-2020-29510?

The vulnerability in the encoding/xml package of Go versions 1.15 and earlier allows attackers to create inputs that exhibit conflicting behaviors during different processing stages in downstream applications.

The Impact of CVE-2020-29510

The impact of this CVE is rated as critical with a CVSS base score of 9.8. It poses high risks to confidentiality, integrity, and availability of affected systems.

Technical Details of CVE-2020-29510

This section provides more in-depth technical details of the CVE.

Vulnerability Description

The vulnerability arises from the incorrect preservation of directive semantics during tokenization round-trips in the encoding/xml package of Go.

Affected Systems and Versions

Product: Go
Vendor: Golang
Versions affected: <= 1.15

Exploitation Mechanism

Attackers can exploit this vulnerability by crafting inputs that behave differently at various processing stages in downstream applications.

Mitigation and Prevention

Protecting systems from CVE-2020-29510 requires immediate actions and long-term security practices.

Immediate Steps to Take

Validate untrusted markup in affected applications using the github.com/mattermost/xml-roundtrip-validator module.

Long-Term Security Practices

Regularly update Go to patched versions.
Implement secure coding practices to mitigate input misinterpretation vulnerabilities.
Conduct security assessments and code reviews to identify and address similar issues.

Patching and Updates

Apply patches provided by Go to address the vulnerability and ensure systems are up to date.