rclone is a command-line program to sync files and directories to and from different cloud storage providers. Prior to 1.75.1, backend/local with --links or links=true exposes symlink targets as .rclonelink objects, and fs.RangeOption.Decode can pass an unchecked positive Range start through Object.Open and openTranslatedLink. The function slices the target string as linkdst[offset:], so a Range start larger than the target length causes a deterministic slice-bounds panic when lib/http/serve exposes the object through HTTP or WebDAV. Go net/http normally recovers the panic per connection, causing request-level denial of service rather than terminating the entire process. This issue is fixed in version 1.75.1.
rclone is a command-line program to sync files and directories to and from different cloud storage providers. Prior to 1.75.1, backend/local with --links or links=true exposes symlink targets as .rclonelink objects, and fs.RangeOption.Decode can pass an unchecked positive Range start through Object.Open and openTranslatedLink. The function slices the target string as linkdst[offset:], so a Range start larger than the target length causes a deterministic slice-bounds panic when lib/http/serve exposes the object through HTTP or WebDAV. Go net/http normally recovers the panic per connection, causing request-level denial of service rather than terminating the entire process. This issue is fixed in version 1.75.1.
rclone is a command-line program to sync files and directories to and from different cloud storage providers. Prior to 1.75.1, backend/local with --links or links=true exposes symlink targets as .rclonelink objects, and fs.RangeOption.Decode can pass an unchecked positive Range start through Object.Open and openTranslatedLink. The function slices the target string as linkdst[offset:], so a Range start larger than the target length causes a deterministic slice-bounds panic when lib/http/serve exposes the object through HTTP or WebDAV. Go net/http normally recovers the panic per connection, causing request-level denial of service rather than terminating the entire process. This issue is fixed in version 1.75.1.
### Summary
When `backend/local` is used with `--links`/`-l` (or the `links=true` config option), each symlink is exposed as an rclone object whose content is the target path string, suffixed `.rclonelink`. `Object.Open()` decodes an incoming `fs.RangeOption` via `Decode(o.Size())`, then for a translated-symlink object passes the decoded `offset` straight into `openTranslatedLink`, which indexes the target string directly: `linkdst[offset:]`.
`RangeOption.Decode`'s `Start >= 0` branch (an ordinary `Range: bytes=X-` request) sets `offset = o.Start` with no upper bound, unlike its suffix-range branch (`Start < 0`, e.g. `bytes=-N`), which already clamps a too-large value to 0 - the fix for a prior, related crash (issue #6310: "bytes=-90407" against a 5-byte object panicked with "slice bounds out of range", now covered by an existing regression test). The `Start >= 0` branch never received the analogous protection.
A `Range: bytes=<hugeStart>-` request sent to `rclone serve http`/`webdav` (or any consumer of `lib/http/serve`'s `Object()`, which parses and decodes the client's own Range header) against a directory containing a symlink therefore reaches `linkdst[offset:]` with offset far beyond the target string's length, and Go panics with "slice bounds out of range" instead of returning an empty read.
### Details
Vulnerable code (before fix):
```go
func (o *Object) openTranslatedLink(offset, limit int64) (lrc io.ReadCloser, err error) {
linkdst, err := os.Readlink(o.path)
if err != nil { return nil, err }
return readers.NewLimitedReadCloser(io.NopCloser(strings.NewReader(linkdst[offset:])), limit), nil
}
```
### PoC
Called the real production `Object.Open()` on a translated-symlink object (target length 12) with `&fs.RangeOption{Start: math.MaxInt64, End: -1}`:
```
panic: runtime error: slice bounds out of range [9223372036854775807:8]
...backend/local.(*Object).openTranslatedLink
...backend/local.(*Object).Open
```
### Impact
A remote client can send a single crafted `Range` header against any symlink-backed object exposed by `rclone serve http`/`webdav`/etc (backed by `backend/local` with `--links` enabled) to deterministically panic the request-handling goroutine. Go's `net/http` recovers panics per-connection by default, so this fails the one request/connection rather than crashing the whole server process, and no file handle is left open (the panic occurs before any read handle is acquired) - but it is fully deterministic and remotely triggerable with no authentication or race window needed, unlike some other panic-recovery findings.
### Fix
Clamp `offset` to the length of the target string before slicing, matching how a real file read past EOF behaves (an empty read):
```go
if offset > int64(len(linkdst)) {
offset = int64(len(linkdst))
}
```
Note: the shared `RangeOption.Decode()` also has a related, unaddressed issue - `limit = o.End - o.Start + 1` can itself overflow to a large negative number for a huge `End` - but a fix attempted there during this investigation broke `fs/operations/reopen.go`'s `NewReOpen`, which calls `Decode` with its `h.end` field still at its zero value at that point in construction. Flagged for awareness but not changed here to keep this patch minimal and low-risk.
EUVD source date text has no stated timezone and is retained without inventing a UTC instant. Related bulletin membership is not an alias, common cause or applicability claim. A missing vector with a zero score is treated as unrated. Complete vendor/product and underlying source evidence remains in the original JSON.
Original publisher date fields
datePublished: Sep 10, 2026, 3:50:41 PM
dateUpdated: Sep 10, 2026, 4:01:48 PM
No normalized affected-package data is projected for this source revision. The original publisher record may contain additional product and version evidence; this does not establish that a package is unaffected.
NVD analysis and CPE criteria are source context, not proof that a package or your environment is affected. Complete affected data, logical configurations and SSVC are retained in the original JSON.
Source analysis status: Analyzed
Weakness classifications: CWE-190 · CWE-248
Original publisher date fields
published: 2026-09-10T16:18:08.490
lastModified: 2026-09-23T20:42:27.633
1 source CPE criteria · context only
cpe:2.3:a:rclone:rclone:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
The original JSON retains the logical configuration operators, exclusions and version bounds.
No normalized affected-package data is projected for this source revision. The original publisher record may contain additional product and version evidence; this does not establish that a package is unaffected.