Cyber Resilience

CVE-2023-45287

Golang Go ≤ 1.20.0

Published
05 December 2023
Modified
21 November 2024
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 7.5
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
EPSS Score 0.013 67th percentile
Risk Priority 60 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2023-45287 is a high-severity Observable Discrepancy (CWE-203) vulnerability in Golang Go. Its CVSS base score is 7.5 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Account Discovery (T1087); ranked in the top 33% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

Before Go 1.20, the RSA based TLS key exchanges used the math/big library, which is not constant time. RSA blinding was applied to prevent timing attacks, but analysis shows this may not have been fully effective. In particular it appears…

more

as if the removal of PKCS#1 padding may leak timing information, which in turn could be used to recover session key bits. In Go 1.20, the crypto/tls library switched to a fully constant time RSA implementation, which we do not believe exhibits any timing side channels.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1087 Account Discovery Discovery
Adversaries may attempt to get a listing of valid accounts, usernames, or email addresses on a system or within a compromised environment.
T1110 Brute Force Credential Access
Adversaries may use brute force techniques to gain access to accounts when passwords are unknown or when password hashes are obtained.
T1595 Active Scanning Reconnaissance
Adversaries may execute active reconnaissance scans to gather information that can be used during targeting.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-32289Same product: Golang Go
CVE-2026-42505Same product: Golang Go
CVE-2023-24538Same product: Golang Go
CVE-2025-58188Same product: Golang Go
CVE-2025-47907Same product: Golang Go
CVE-2025-58185Same product: Golang Go
CVE-2026-39823Same product: Golang Go
CVE-2025-68119Same product: Golang Go
CVE-2023-45285Same product: Golang Go
CVE-2025-61729Same product: Golang Go

Affected Assets

golang
go
≤ 1.20.0

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)
  • 1 hardening rule · 1 OS baseline
Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)

Likely Mitigating Controls AI

Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.

addresses: CWE-203

Misdirection can normalize or falsify responses to eliminate observable discrepancies that aid reconnaissance.

addresses: CWE-203

Observable discrepancies in system behavior can be modulated to create covert storage or timing channels; the required analysis detects and constrains such avenues.

addresses: CWE-203

Prevents attackers from using observable differences in error responses to infer internal system details or state.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices directly prevent observable response discrepancies via consistent error handling and timing.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

none

Accurate, synchronized timestamps reduce observable timing discrepancies that an attacker could exploit to infer sensitive information or distinguish between success and failure paths.

References