Improper use of cryptographic key in wal-g

published 2021-08-12 5 y ago modified 2026-09-10 1 mo ago also GHSA-vrmr-f2qh-3hhf , EUVD-2021-2117

cvss: 7.5; version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev: Not listed; not in CISA's catalog
epss: 0.8%; EPSS 0.8% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 57%
public exploits: 0; none known

WAL-G before 1.1, when a non-libsodium build (e.g., one of the official binary releases published as GitHub Releases) is used, silently ignores the libsodium encryption key and uploads cleartext backups. This is arguably a Principle of Least Surprise violation because "the user likely wanted to encrypt all file activity."

Patch / fix

fixed in 2 links 3

go github.com/wal-g/wal-g 1.1
wal-g_project wal-g 1.1

github.com/wal-g/wal-g@cadf598 commit
github.com/wal-g/wal-g#1062 pull request
github.com/wal-g/wal-g/releases/tag/v1.1 release

Exploit prediction

0.83% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 57% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by	version	score	vector
NVD	3.1	7.5	CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
NVD	2.0	5.0	AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N
GitHub	3.1	7.5	CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N

Affected packages

ecosystem	package	affected	fixed in
go	github.com/wal-g/wal-g	<1.1	1.1

Classification

Weakness

CWE-754 Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions
CWE-922 Insecure Storage of Sensitive Information

References

github.com /wal-g/wal-g/pull/1062
web, patch, third-party-advisory
github.com /wal-g/wal-g/commit/cadf598e1c2a345915a21a44518c5a4d5401e2e3
web, patch, third-party-advisory
nvd.nist.gov /vuln/detail/CVE-2021-38599
advisory
github.com /wal-g/wal-g
package
github.com /wal-g/wal-g/releases/tag/v1.1
web

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.

Summary