Answer in brief
CVE-2023-52081 records a Medium severity (CVSS 5.3) vulnerability in ewen-lbh/ffcss Late-Unicode normalization vulnerability. The current sources do not mark it as known exploited. The current feed maps github.com/ewen-lbh/ffcss (go). Check affected ranges and fixed versions before updating.
Analysis pending evidence review
HOL Guard separates source facts from reviewed analysis. See the methodology.
CVSS is 5.3. The current sources do not mark it as known exploited. Treat this as a source-backed prioritization signal, not a statement about your environment.
Analysis status
Analysis pending evidence review
Factual feed record only; HOL analysis is not approved for indexing. Read the methodology.
The current feed maps github.com/ewen-lbh/ffcss (go). Check affected ranges and fixed versions before updating.
| Package | Affected range | Fixed version |
|---|---|---|
| github.com/ewen-lbh/ffcssgo | >=0 <0.2.0 | 0.2.0 |
Published upstream
Dec 28, 2023
Evidence: source:osv:source_dates:source-dates:recordSource modified
Sep 10, 2026
Evidence: source:osv:source_dates:source-dates:recordFirst seen by HOL
Sep 10, 2026
### Summary The function `lookupPreprocess()` is meant to apply some transformations to a string by disabling characters in the regex `[-_ .]`. However, due to the use of late Unicode normalization of type NFKD, it is possible to bypass that validation and re-introduce all the characters in the regex `[-_ .]`. ```go // lookupPreprocess applies transformations to s so that it can be compared // to search for something. // For example, it is used by (ThemeStore).Lookup func lookupPreprocess(s string) string { return strings.ToLower(norm.NFKD.String(regexp.MustCompile(`[-_ .]`).ReplaceAllString(s, ""))) } ``` Take the following equivalent Unicode character U+2024 (․). Initially, the `lookupPreprocess()` function would compile the regex and replace the regular dot (.). However, the U+2024 (․) would bypass the `ReplaceAllString()`. When the normalization operation is applied to U+2024 (․), the resulting character will be U+002E (.). Thus, the dot was reintroduced back. ### Impact The `lookupPreprocess()` can be easily bypassed with equivalent Unicode characters like U+FE4D (﹍), which would result in the omitted U+005F (_), for instance. It should be noted here that the variable `s` is user-controlled data coming from [/cmd/ffcss/commands.go#L22-L28](https://github.com/ewen-lbh/ffcss/blob/master/cmd/ffcss/commands.go#L22-L28) the command args. The `lookupPreprocess()` function is only ever used to search for themes loosely (case insensitively, while ignoring dashes, underscores and dots), so the actual security impact is classified as low. ### Remediation A simple fix would be to initially perform the Unicode normalization and then the rest of validations. ### References - https://sim4n6.beehiiv.com/p/unicode-characters-bypass-security-checks
Quoted source text, attributed separately from HOL analysis.