Cyber Resilience

CVE-2026-58403

Gohugo Hugo 0.123.0 – 0.163.1

Published
06 July 2026
Modified
08 July 2026
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v4 5.9
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:A/VC:H/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
EPSS Score 0.0032 24th percentile
Risk Priority 35 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2026-58403 is a medium-severity Link Following (CWE-59) vulnerability in Gohugo Hugo. Its CVSS base score is 5.9 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Data from Local System (T1005); ranked at the 24th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to CM-7 (Least Functionality) and AC-6 (Least Privilege) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

A01:2025 Broken Access Control

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

Hugo is a static site generator. From v0.123.0 through v0.163.0, Hugo's virtual filesystem is designed so that files under a mount cannot reach outside the mount tree, but a regression caused RootMappingFs.statRoot to call Stat, which follows symlinks, instead of…

more

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. This issue is fixed in v0.163.1.

CWE(s)
CWE-59

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI

T1005 Data from Local System Collection
Adversaries may search local system sources, such as file systems, configuration files, local databases, virtual machine files, or process memory, to find files of interest and sensitive data prior to Exfiltration.
attack.mitre.org →
Why these techniques?

Symlink escape in mounts enables direct arbitrary local file reads via os.ReadFile on the Hugo process.

Confidence: MEDIUM · MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise v19.0

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-50135Same product: Gohugo Hugo
CVE-2026-44301Same product: Gohugo Hugo
CVE-2026-50133Same product: Gohugo Hugo
CVE-2026-58402Same product: Gohugo Hugo
CVE-2026-35166Same product: Gohugo Hugo
CVE-2026-58404Same product: Gohugo Hugo
CVE-2026-50134Same product: Gohugo Hugo
CVE-2026-56692Shared CWE-59
CVE-2026-46468Shared CWE-59
CVE-2026-15788Shared CWE-59

Affected Assets

gohugo
hugo
0.123.0 — 0.163.1

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)
  • CM-7 Least Functionality
  • AC-6 Least Privilege
Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)
  • SI-7 Software, Firmware, and Information Integrity
Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

—

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V15.4.2

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

CM-7 Least Functionality good match
prevent

Least functionality disables or restricts symlink traversal and external file access within Hugo's virtual filesystem mounts, directly blocking the symlink escape described in CVE-2026-58403.

SI-7 Software, Firmware, and Information Integrity partial match
detect

Software, firmware, and information integrity monitoring can detect unauthorized symlink creation or unexpected file reads outside the intended mount tree.

AC-6 Least Privilege partial match
prevent

Least privilege limits the Hugo process to the minimal filesystem permissions needed, reducing the impact of a symlink that would otherwise expose arbitrary files.

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 require code to validate paths and avoid unsafe link following.

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.

A.8.29 Security testing in development and acceptance mostly match
detects

Security testing can detect link-following flaws before release.

A.8.25 Secure development life cycle partial match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices can mandate link-resolution checks and canonicalization before file access.

A.8.26 Application security requirements partial match
prevents

Application security requirements can explicitly require safe handling of symbolic links and path traversal.

A.8.27 Secure system architecture and engineering principles partial match
prevents

Secure architecture principles include input validation and safe file-access design patterns.

A.8.28 Secure coding partial match
prevents

Secure coding standards directly address canonicalization and symlink attacks during implementation.

A.8.3 Information access restriction none match
none

Access-control rules can limit which files are reachable, reducing exposure to malicious links.

References