Go cgo pkg-config Flag Injection & Path Traversal
CVE-2026-97039 Published on November 11, 2026

Flag sanitization bypass via "#cgo pkg-config:" directives in cmd/go
Building a malicious package that uses "#cgo pkg-config:" directives could load untrusted pkg-config ".pc" files or inject unvalidated compiler and linker flags. The pkg-config flag allowlist previously permitted "--with-path=" and "--personality=", allowed "--define-variable=" values beginning with "=" or "$" (which can rewrite paths in system ".pc" files into sysroot-prefixed "-L=" or "-L$SYSROOT" linker search paths), and allowed package arguments ending in ".pc" or containing path separators or "..", which caused pkg-config to load local ".pc" files directly from the package directory. In addition, flags returned by "pkg-config --cflags" in cgoCPPFLAGS were not checked when determining whether internal linking is safe. The go command now disallows "--with-path=", "--personality=", leading "=" or "$" characters in "--define-variable=" values, and local ".pc" paths in "#cgo pkg-config:" directives, and inspects cgoCPPFLAGS when checking internal linking compatibility.