Summary
gorilla/csrf CSRF vulnerability due to broken Referer validation
gorilla/csrf is vulnerable to CSRF via form submission from origins that share a top level domain with the target origin.
Details
gorilla/csrf does not validate the Origin header against an allowlist. Its executes its validation of the Referer header for cross-origin requests only when it believes the request is being served over TLS. It determines this by inspecting the r.URL.Scheme value. However, this value is never populated for "server" requests per the Go spec, and so this check does not run in practice.
// URL specifies either the URI being requested (for server
// requests) or the URL to access (for client requests).
//
// For server requests, the URL is parsed from the URI
// supplied on the Request-Line as stored in RequestURI. For
// most requests, fields other than Path and RawQuery will be
// empty. (See [RFC 7230, Section 5.3](https://rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc7230.html#section-5.3))
//
// For client requests, the URL's Host specifies the server to
// connect to, while the Request's Host field optionally
// specifies the Host header value to send in the HTTP
// request.
URL *[url](https://pkg.go.dev/net/url).[URL](https://pkg.go.dev/net/url#URL)
PoC
- create trusted origin
target.example.testprotected with gorilla/csrf and served over TLS hosting form on/submit - create attacker origin
attack.example.testserved over TLS - attacker exfiltrates token & cookie combination from
target.example.test - attacker sets exfiltrated cookie with
domain=.example.test and path=/submit- as the cookie has a more specific path than
/(the default for CSRF cookies) it will be sent first by the browser on submit to our target origin
- as the cookie has a more specific path than
- submit form from
attack.example.testwith exfiltrated CSRF form token - observe valid form submission as
attack.example.testOrigin / Referer headers are not validated.
Impact
This vulnerability allows an attacker who has gained XSS on a subdomain or top level domain to perform authenticated form submissions against gorilla/csrf protected targets that share the same top level domain.
This bug has existed in gorilla/csrf since its initial release in 2015.
A victim's authenticated browser session is used to submit forged requests to an application that cannot distinguish them from legitimate ones. Typical impact: state-changing actions performed as the victim without their consent.
Affected versions
Security releases
Kodem intelligence
Severity tells you how bad this could be in the worst case. It does not tell you whether you are exposed. Exploitability and impact are functions of runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A vulnerable package can sit in your dependency tree and never run.
Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter. Kodem's runtime-powered SCA identifies whether this CVE is reachable in your applications.
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Frequently Asked Questions
- What is CVE-2025-24358? CVE-2025-24358 is a medium-severity cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in github.com/gorilla/csrf (go), affecting versions < 1.7.3. It is fixed in 1.7.3. A victim's authenticated browser session is used to submit forged requests to an application that cannot distinguish them from legitimate ones.
- Which versions of github.com/gorilla/csrf are affected by CVE-2025-24358? github.com/gorilla/csrf (go) versions < 1.7.3 is affected.
- Is there a fix for CVE-2025-24358? Yes. CVE-2025-24358 is fixed in 1.7.3. Upgrade to this version or later.
- Is CVE-2025-24358 exploitable, and should I be worried? Whether CVE-2025-24358 is exploitable in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable. A CVSS score is a worst-case rating; it does not account for your specific deployment, configuration, or usage patterns. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to show which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so you can focus on the ones that represent real risk. Get a demo
- What actually determines whether CVE-2025-24358 is exploitable, and how bad it is? Exploitability and impact are not fixed properties of a CVE. They depend on runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A high CVSS score on a dependency that never runs is not the same as real risk. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter.
- How do I fix CVE-2025-24358? Upgrade
github.com/gorilla/csrfto 1.7.3 or later.