GHSA-c38g-469g-cmgx is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.5) CWE-74 vulnerability in helm.sh/helm/v3. O3 Security confirms whether GHSA-c38g-469g-cmgx is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
Improper Neutralization of Special Elements in Output in helm.sh/helm/v3
Real-World Exposure
helm.sh/helm/v3Real-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
Since Helm 2 was released, a well-documented aspect of Helm is that the Helm chart's version number MUST follow the SemVer2 specification. In the past, Helm would not permit charts with malformed versions. At some point, a patch was merged that changed this - On a version parse error, the version number was simply passed along as-is. This provided a vector for malicious data to be injected into Helm and potentially used in various ways.
Core maintainers were able to send deceptive information to a terminal screen running the helm command, as well as obscure or alter information on the screen. In some cases, we could send codes that terminals used to execute higher-order logic, like clearing a terminal screen.
Further, during evaluation, the Helm maintainers discovered a few other fields that were not properly sanitized when read out of repository index files. This fix remedies all such cases, and once again enforces SemVer2 policies on version fields.
All users of the Helm 3 should upgrade.
Those who use Helm as a library should verify that they either sanitize this data on their own, or use the proper Helm API calls to sanitize the data.
Patches
This issue has been resolved in Helm 3.5.2.
While this fix does not constitute a breaking change, as all field formatting is now enforced as documented, it is possible that charts that were mistakenly allowed (but invalid) may no longer be available in search indexes. Specifically, malformed SemVer versions are no longer supported. This has always been the documented case, but it is true that malformed versions were allowed.
Note that this is the first security release since Helm 2's final deprecation. Helm 2 was not audited for vulnerability to this issue, and should be assumed vulnerable.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | helm.sh/helm/v3 | ≥ 3.0.0&&< 3.5.2 | 3.5.2 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for helm.sh/helm/v3. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update helm.sh/helm/v3 to 3.5.2 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-c38g-469g-cmgx is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
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 pinpoints whether GHSA-c38g-469g-cmgx is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.
Tailored to GHSA-c38g-469g-cmgx. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-c38g-469g-cmgx in your dependencies?
O3 detects GHSA-c38g-469g-cmgx across Go dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.