---
id: 1831
title: "Smart (and simple) ways to prevent symlink attacks in Go"
source_domain: blog.trailofbits.com
source_url: "https://blog.trailofbits.com/2020/11/24/smart-and-simple-ways-to-prevent-symlink-attacks-in-go/"
published_at: "2020-11-24T13:00:04Z"
tags: ["secure-coding", "go", "vulnerabilities", "audit", "golang", "symlink", "file-handling", "symlink-attacks", "file-truncation"]
phying_url: "https://phying.com/item/1831"
lang: en
---

# Smart (and simple) ways to prevent symlink attacks in Go

## Summary

Go's os.Create silently truncates existing files, so a planted symlink can wipe data like logs. Trail of Bits explains why nil error checks miss this and how existence checks prevent symlink attacks.

## Intelligence Metadata

- **Sources:** blog.trailofbits.com
- **Published:** 2020-11-24T13:00:04Z
- **Original:** https://blog.trailofbits.com/2020/11/24/smart-and-simple-ways-to-prevent-symlink-attacks-in-go/
- **Phying News:** https://phying.com/item/1831