os/exec: fix incorrect expansion of "", "." and ".." in LookPath

Fix incorrect expansion of "" and "." when $PATH contains an executable
file or, on Windows, a parent directory of a %PATH% element contains an
file with the same name as the %PATH% element but with one of the
%PATHEXT% extension (ex: C:\utils\bin is in PATH, and C:\utils\bin.exe
exists).

Fix incorrect expansion of ".." when $PATH contains an element which is
an the concatenation of the path to an executable file (or on Windows
a path that can be expanded to an executable by appending a %PATHEXT%
extension), a path separator and a name.

"", "." and ".." are now rejected early with ErrNotFound.

Fixes CVE-2025-47906
Fixes #74466

Change-Id: Ie50cc0a660fce8fbdc952a7f2e05c36062dcb50e
Reviewed-on: https://go-review.googlesource.com/c/go/+/685755
LUCI-TryBot-Result: Go LUCI <[email protected]>
Auto-Submit: Damien Neil <[email protected]>
Reviewed-by: Roland Shoemaker <[email protected]>
Reviewed-by: Damien Neil <[email protected]>

Author: dolmen

src/os/exec/dot_test.go

@@ -177,4 +177,48 @@ func TestLookPath(t *testing.T) {
 			}
 		}
 	})
+
+	checker := func(test string) func(t *testing.T) {
+		return func(t *testing.T) {
+			t.Helper()
+			t.Logf("PATH=%s", os.Getenv("PATH"))
+			p, err := LookPath(test)
+			if err == nil {
+				t.Errorf("%q: error expected, got nil", test)
+			}
+			if p != "" {
+				t.Errorf("%q: path returned should be \"\". Got %q", test, p)
+			}
+		}
+	}
+
+	// Reference behavior for the next test
+	t.Run(pathVar+"=$OTHER2", func(t *testing.T) {
+		t.Run("empty", checker(""))
+		t.Run("dot", checker("."))
+		t.Run("dotdot1", checker("abc/.."))
+		t.Run("dotdot2", checker(".."))
+	})
+
+	// Test the behavior when PATH contains an executable file which is not a directory
+	t.Run(pathVar+"=exe", func(t *testing.T) {
+		// Inject an executable file (not a directory) in PATH.
+		// Use our own binary os.Args[0].
+		t.Setenv(pathVar, testenv.Executable(t))
+		t.Run("empty", checker(""))
+		t.Run("dot", checker("."))
+		t.Run("dotdot1", checker("abc/.."))
+		t.Run("dotdot2", checker(".."))
+	})
+
+	// Test the behavior when PATH contains an executable file which is not a directory
+	t.Run(pathVar+"=exe/xx", func(t *testing.T) {
+		// Inject an executable file (not a directory) in PATH.
+		// Use our own binary os.Args[0].
+		t.Setenv(pathVar, filepath.Join(testenv.Executable(t), "xx"))
+		t.Run("empty", checker(""))
+		t.Run("dot", checker("."))
+		t.Run("dotdot1", checker("abc/.."))
+		t.Run("dotdot2", checker(".."))
+	})
 }

src/os/exec/exec.go

@@ -1328,3 +1328,13 @@ func addCriticalEnv(env []string) []string {
 // Code should use errors.Is(err, ErrDot), not err == ErrDot,
 // to test whether a returned error err is due to this condition.
 var ErrDot = errors.New("cannot run executable found relative to current directory")
+
+// validateLookPath excludes paths that can't be valid
+// executable names. See issue #74466 and CVE-2025-47906.
+func validateLookPath(s string) error {
+	switch s {
+	case "", ".", "..":
+		return ErrNotFound
+	}
+	return nil
+}

src/os/exec/lp_plan9.go

@@ -36,6 +36,10 @@ func findExecutable(file string) error {
 // As of Go 1.19, LookPath will instead return that path along with an error satisfying
 // [errors.Is](err, [ErrDot]). See the package documentation for more details.
 func LookPath(file string) (string, error) {
+	if err := validateLookPath(file); err != nil {
+		return "", &Error{file, err}
+	}
+
 	// skip the path lookup for these prefixes
 	skip := []string{"/", "#", "./", "../"}
 

src/os/exec/lp_unix.go

@@ -54,6 +54,10 @@ func LookPath(file string) (string, error) {
 	// (only bypass the path if file begins with / or ./ or ../)
 	// but that would not match all the Unix shells.
 
+	if err := validateLookPath(file); err != nil {
+		return "", &Error{file, err}
+	}
+
 	if strings.Contains(file, "/") {
 		err := findExecutable(file)
 		if err == nil {

src/os/exec/lp_windows.go

@@ -67,6 +67,10 @@ func findExecutable(file string, exts []string) (string, error) {
 // As of Go 1.19, LookPath will instead return that path along with an error satisfying
 // [errors.Is](err, [ErrDot]). See the package documentation for more details.
 func LookPath(file string) (string, error) {
+	if err := validateLookPath(file); err != nil {
+		return "", &Error{file, err}
+	}
+
 	return lookPath(file, pathExt())
 }
 
@@ -80,6 +84,10 @@ func LookPath(file string) (string, error) {
 // "C:\foo\example.com" would be returned as-is even if the
 // program is actually "C:\foo\example.com.exe".
 func lookExtensions(path, dir string) (string, error) {
+	if err := validateLookPath(path); err != nil {
+		return "", &Error{path, err}
+	}
+
 	if filepath.Base(path) == path {
 		path = "." + string(filepath.Separator) + path
 	}