CVE-2023-45283

Insecure parsing of Windows paths with a \??\ prefix in path/filepath

HIGH
7.5
CVSS Score
Published: November 9, 2023 at 04:30 PM UTC
Updated: June 17, 2026 at 06:28 AM UTC
3 products affected across 2 vendorsGoGoInternal/safefilepath· also runs on 1 platform

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Severity
HIGH7.5
Exploit prediction
EPSS 3%

Description

The filepath package does not recognize paths with a \??\ prefix as special. On Windows, a path beginning with \??\ is a Root Local Device path equivalent to a path beginning with \\?\. Paths with a \??\ prefix may be used to access arbitrary locations on the system. For example, the path \??\c:\x is equivalent to the more common path c:\x. Before fix, Clean could convert a rooted path such as \a\..\??\b into the root local device path \??\b. Clean will now convert this to .\??\b. Similarly, Join(\, ??, b) could convert a seemingly innocent sequence of path elements into the root local device path \??\b. Join will now convert this to \.\??\b. In addition, with fix, IsAbs now correctly reports paths beginning with \??\ as absolute, and VolumeName correctly reports the \??\ prefix as a volume name. UPDATE: Go 1.20.11 and Go 1.21.4 inadvertently changed the definition of the volume name in Windows paths starting with \?, resulting in filepath.Clean(\?\c:) returning \?\c: rather than \?\c:\ (among other effects). The previous behavior has been restored.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

v < 1.20.111.21.0-0 ≤ v < 1.21.4
Affected range stops below 1.20.11, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
Affected range stops below 1.21.4, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
microsoft-windows (environment)
v < 1.20.111.20.11 ≤ v < 1.20.121.21.0-0 ≤ v < 1.21.41.21.4 ≤ v < 1.21.51.20.111.21.0-01.21.4
Affected range stops below 1.20.11, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
Affected range stops below 1.20.12, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
Affected range stops below 1.21.4, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
Affected range stops below 1.21.5, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
v < 1.20.111.21.0-0 ≤ v < 1.21.41.21.0-0
Affected range stops below 1.20.11, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
Affected range stops below 1.21.4, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement

Runs on — not affected

The affected product only carries this flaw when running on these platforms. The platforms themselves are not vulnerable.

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet. What the record does show:

CVSS

Attack Vector
NETWORK
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
HIGH
Integrity
NONE
Availability
NONE
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusMODIFIED
CWE
CWE-22

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