GHSA-78hx-gp6g-7mj6 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) CWE-401 vulnerability in github.com/golang-fips/go. A fix is available for github.com/golang-fips/go — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Memory leaks in code encrypting and verifying RSA payloads
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for GHSA-78hx-gp6g-7mj6.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
GHSA-78hx-gp6g-7mj6 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 378,567 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
github.com/golang-fips/go🐹github.com/golang-fips/openssl/v2🐹github.com/microsoft/go-crypto-openssl🐹github.com/microsoft/go-crypto-openssl/opensslReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Go packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
A memory leak flaw was found in Golang in the RSA encrypting/decrypting code, which might lead to a resource exhaustion vulnerability using attacker-controlled inputs. The memory leak happens in github.com/golang-fips/openssl/openssl/rsa.go#L113. The objects leaked are pkey and ctx. That function uses named return parameters to free pkey and ctx if there is an error initializing the context or setting the different properties. All return statements related to error cases follow the "return nil, nil, fail(...)" pattern, meaning that pkey and ctx will be nil inside the deferred function that should free them.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | github.com/golang-fips/go | all versions | No fix |
| 🐹Go | github.com/golang-fips/openssl/v2 | all versions | 2.0.1go get github.com/golang-fips/openssl/v2@v2.0.1 |
| 🐹Go | github.com/microsoft/go-crypto-openssl | all versions | No fix |
| 🐹Go | github.com/microsoft/go-crypto-openssl/openssl | all versions | 0.2.9go get github.com/microsoft/go-crypto-openssl/openssl@v0.2.9 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/golang-fips/go, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
No patched version of github.com/golang-fips/go has shipped for GHSA-78hx-gp6g-7mj6 yet. Where your build allows, override or pin the dependency away from the vulnerable range, and apply any maintainer-recommended mitigation.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like GHSA-78hx-gp6g-7mj6 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-78hx-gp6g-7mj6. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
The majority of RHEL utilities are not long-running applications; instead, they are command-line tools. These tools utilize Golang package as build-time dependency, which is why they are classified as having a "Moderate" level of impact.
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.4 for RHEL 8 | receptor-0:1.4.5-1.el8ap | RHSA-2024:1640 |
| Red Hat Developer Tools | go-toolset-1.19-golang-0:1.19.13-6.el7_9 | RHSA-2024:1468 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | go-toolset:rhel8-8090020240313170136.26eb71ac | RHSA-2024:1472 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | grafana-pcp-0:5.1.1-2.el8_9 | RHSA-2024:1644 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | grafana-0:9.2.10-8.el8_9 | RHSA-2024:1646 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | grafana-0:9.2.10-16.el8_10 | RHSA-2024:3265 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | container-tools:rhel8-8100020240808093819.afee755d | RHSA-2024:5258 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | osbuild-composer-0:101-2.el8_10 | RHSA-2024:7262 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-78hx-gp6g-7mj6 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-78hx-gp6g-7mj6 across Go dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.