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GoApplication · Golang

CVE-2020-16845

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2020-08-06
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 1.13.15 / 1.14.7 or later.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

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 · unedited
Go before 1.13.15 and 14.x before 1.14.7 can have an infinite read loop in ReadUvarint and ReadVarint in encoding/binary via invalid inputs.

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 confidence

Go before 1.13.15 and 1.14.x before 1.14.7 contains an infinite read loop vulnerability in the ReadUvarint and ReadVarint functions in the encoding/binary package. When these functions process specially crafted invalid inputs, they can enter an infinite loop, causing a denial of service via CPU exhaustion.

MitigationUpgrade Go to version 1.13.15 or 1.14.7 or later to patch the infinite loop vulnerability in the encoding/binary package.

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
GoApplication
Affected:< 1.13.15>= 1.14, < 1.14.7
Debian LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 9.0= 10.0
FedoraOperating system
Affected:= 31= 32
LeapOperating system
Affected:= 15.1= 15.2

CVSS 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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Check installed Go version
    Run 'go version' command or inspect /usr/local/go/VERSION file
    Affected if Version is below 1.13.15, or between 1.14.0 and 1.14.6 inclusive
  2. Identify encoding/binary package usage
    Search codebase for 'import "encoding/binary"' statements using grep or IDE search
    Affected if The application imports the encoding/binary package
  3. Locate vulnerable function calls
    Search for ReadUvarint and ReadVarint function calls in the codebase
    Affected if Code calls either ReadUvarint or ReadVarint functions from encoding/binary
  4. Determine input source for vulnerable functions
    Trace data flow to see if ReadUvarint/ReadVarint processes data from network, files, user input, or other external sources
    Affected if The functions process untrusted or externally-supplied binary data

The environment is affected if running Go version less than 1.13.15 or between 1.14.0-1.14.6 AND the application uses encoding/binary ReadUvarint or ReadVarint to process untrusted input.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Upgrade available Upgrade to 1.13.15 / 1.14.7 or later
Fixed in 1.13.151.14.7
Interim mitigation

Upgrade Go to version 1.13.15 or 1.14.7 or later to patch the infinite loop vulnerability in the encoding/binary package.

Fix this in Go Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing8.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
16.0 hours of engineering $2,680
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $4,288.

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2020-16845 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data