GHSA-hgwp-4vp4-qmm2 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.8) CWE-427 vulnerability in github.com/cloudflare/cloudflared. A fix is available for github.com/cloudflare/cloudflared — see the affected versions and patch details below.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
Where this sits among everything scored
Real-World Exposure
github.com/cloudflare/cloudflaredReal-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
In cloudflared versions < 2020.8.1 (corresponding to 0.0.0-20200820025921-9323844ea773 on pkg.go.dev) on Windows, if an administrator has started cloudflared and set it to read configuration files from a certain directory, an unprivileged user can exploit a misconfiguration in order to escalate privileges and execute system-level commands. The misconfiguration was due to the way that cloudflared reads its configuration file. One of the locations that cloudflared reads from (C:\etc) is not a secure by default directory due to the fact that Windows does not enforce access controls on this directory without further controls applied. A malformed config.yaml file can be written by any user. Upon reading this config, cloudflared would output an error message to a log file defined in the malformed config. The user-controlled log file location could be set to a specific location that Windows will execute when any user logs in.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | github.com/cloudflare/cloudflared | all versions | 0.0.0-20200820025921-9323844ea773go get github.com/cloudflare/cloudflared@v0.0.0-20200820025921-9323844ea773 |
Affected Products
cloudflaredcloudflareDetection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/cloudflare/cloudflared, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update github.com/cloudflare/cloudflared to 0.0.0-20200820025921-9323844ea773 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-hgwp-4vp4-qmm2 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Put an independent control in front of the weakness: restrict the affected endpoint or interface to trusted networks, require an additional authentication factor or proxy-level check, and invalidate existing sessions and credentials in case the flaw has already been used.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-hgwp-4vp4-qmm2 in your dependencies?
Find it across Go, including transitive dependencies.