NetApplication · Golang
CVE-2018-17846
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedThe html package (aka x/net/html) through 2018-09-25 in Go mishandles <table><math><select><mi><select></table>, leading to an infinite loop during an html.Parse call because inSelectIM and inSelectInTableIM do not comply with a specification.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidenceThe Go x/net/html package through 2018-09-25 contains a parsing state machine bug where certain nested HTML tag sequences (specifically <table><math><select><mi><select></table>) cause an infinite loop during html.Parse. This occurs because the inSelectIM and inSelectInTableIM functions fail to comply with the HTML specification for handling these particular tag combinations.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data
NetApplication
<= 2018-09-25
FedoraOperating system
= 28= 29CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify if x/net/html package is in useSearch your codebase for imports of golang.org/x/net/html or code that uses the html.Parse function. Check go.mod for x/net dependencies, or inspect vendor/ directory for the html package.Affected if The x/net/html package is imported and used in the codebase
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Determine the version of x/net packageRun 'go list -m all' to list all module versions, or examine the version tag/date in go.mod or vendor directory. The vulnerable version is any release dated on or before 2018-09-25.Affected if The x/net module version date is on or before September 25, 2018
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Verify Go standard library html package versionIf using the built-in html package instead of x/net/html, check your Go installation version: run 'go version' and check the Go release notes for the html package fix date.Affected if The Go version contains the html parser bug from before the 2018-09-25 fix
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Check if running on affected Fedora systemsIf deploying on Fedora, run 'cat /etc/fedora-release' to identify the Fedora version.Affected if Running Fedora 28 or Fedora 29 with vulnerable Go packages installed
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Confirm application parses untrusted HTML inputReview code that calls html.Parse to determine if it processes input from untrusted sources (user input, external APIs, web scraping results).Affected if The application uses html.Parse to process untrusted or potentially malicious HTML content
You are affected if your environment uses the x/net/html or Go standard library html package with a version released on or before 2018-09-25 and parses HTML from untrusted sources.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataUpdate the x/net/html package to a version released after 2018-09-25 that contains the corrected parsing state machine logic, or upgrade the Go standard library if using the built-in html package.
Fix this in Net
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,512.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-17846 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2018-17846 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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