Hugo: Symlink confinement bypass in os.ReadFile
Key facts
- Attack vector
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- Privileges required
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- User interaction
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- Attack complexity
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- Impact type
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- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
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- Fix status
- Fixed
No CVSS vector from any source. Fix status from GitHub.
Summary
**Affected versions:** v0.123.0 through v0.163.0. Earlier versions are not affected. **Fixed in:** v0.163.1. **Severity:** Medium. Requires the attacker to be able to place (or convince a site author to place) a symlink inside a mounted directory — for example, inside a locally-vendored theme under `themes/`. Themes mounted as Go modules from GitHub have symlinks stripped on download and are not affected. Multi-directory walks (e.g. content/asset walking) were not affected either; only direct lookups via `resources.Get` followed symlinks. **Description.** Hugo's virtual filesystem is designed so that files under a mount cannot reach outside the mount tree. A regression introduced in v0.123.0 caused `RootMappingFs.statRoot` to call `Stat` (which follows symlinks) instead of `Lstat`, so a direct `os.ReadFile "somefile"` where `somefile` was a symlink pointing outside the mount would return the target's contents. This effectively let a symlink planted inside a theme or local mount read arbitrary files reachable to the user running `hugo`.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
Not available: CISA has not published SSVC decision points for this record.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | github.com/gohugoio/hugo (Go) | 0.123.0 to before 0.163.1 | 0.163.1 | Patch available | GHSA-c3wq-j5vh-68rc |
- github.com/gohugoio/hugo (Go) Vendor— Affected 0.123.0 to before 0.163.1 Fixed in 0.163.1 Patch available GHSA-c3wq-j5vh-68rc
Remediation
- Fix · GHSA-c3wq-j5vh-68rc github.com/gohugoio/hugo (Go) Fixed in 0.163.1 Advisory →
Timeline
- 2026-10-03 Threatist record created from GHSA-c3wq-j5vh-68rc
References
Sources
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