GoApplication · Golang
CVE-2020-29511
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 encoding/xml package in Go (all versions) does not correctly preserve the semantics of element namespace prefixes during tokenization round-trips, which allows an attacker to craft inputs that behave in conflicting ways during different stages of processing in affected downstream applications.
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 · moderate confidenceThe encoding/xml package in Go (all versions) incorrectly preserves element namespace prefix semantics during XML tokenization round-trips. This allows attackers to craft malicious XML inputs where namespace prefixes behave inconsistently between parsing and re-serialization stages, potentially bypassing security checks in downstream applications that rely on consistent XML namespace handling.
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
< 1.17all versionsCVSS 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
- High
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- Low
- Integrity
- Low
- Availability
- Low
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L
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 installed Go versionRun 'go version' in the application environment or check the Go binary location used by the applicationAffected if The reported Go version is earlier than 1.15.12 or 1.14.19 (or any version below the patched release for your major version branch)
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Locate Go applications using encoding/xmlSearch codebase for imports of 'encoding/xml' package, or use 'go list -f '{{.ImportPath}}' all' to find packages that depend on itAffected if The application imports and uses the encoding/xml package for XML processing
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Identify XML round-trip operationsReview code that uses xml.NewDecoder with xml.NewEncoder, or sequences of xml.Unmarshal followed by xml.Marshal on the same data structuresAffected if The application performs XML parsing then re-serialization (round-trips) on untrusted XML input
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Check if XML input is untrusted or externally sourcedExamine whether XML data originates from user input, API requests, uploaded files, or external systemsAffected if The application processes XML from untrusted or external sources through encoding/xml round-trips
Your environment is affected if it runs a Go version prior to the patched release AND uses the encoding/xml package to perform round-trip parsing/re-serialization on untrusted XML input.
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 data1.17
Upgrade to Go 1.15.12/1.14.19 or later, or implement additional validation of XML namespace handling in affected downstream applications to detect conflicting prefix behaviors.
Fix this in Go
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation6.0 h
- Testing4.0 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 $4,224.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-29511 — 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-2020-29511 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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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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