VNX-GO-001 – Missing go.sum

Overview

This rule flags Go projects that have a go.mod file but no corresponding go.sum file. The go.sum file records the expected cryptographic checksums of every module your project depends on. Without it, Go has no way to verify that the module code it downloads at build time matches what you originally tested against, opening a direct path for supply chain compromise. This maps to CWE-829: Inclusion of Functionality from Untrusted Control Sphere.

Severity: High | CWE: CWE-829 – Inclusion of Functionality from Untrusted Control Sphere | OWASP ASVS: V14.2 – Dependency Verification

Go idiom note: Committing go.sum to version control IS the idiomatic Go default and is the approach recommended in the official Go module documentation. Omitting it is always a deliberate (and insecure) exception.

Why This Matters

Without a go.sum, a compromised module proxy, a DNS hijack, or a typosquat package can silently substitute malicious code into your build. The attacker does not need access to your repository — they only need to interfere with the module download path between your build environment and the module origin. In CI/CD pipelines this risk is elevated because builds frequently download fresh dependencies from the internet. A single poisoned module can exfiltrate secrets, establish persistence, or tamper with application logic before your code even starts. MITRE ATT&CK technique T1195.001 (Supply Chain Compromise: Compromise Software Dependencies) describes exactly this attack class.

OWASP ASVS v4.0 requirement V14.2.1 requires that all components are up to date and verified. The Go checksum database (sum.golang.org) provides a transparency log of all published module versions; go.sum is the per-project anchor that ties your dependency tree to verified entries in that log.

What Gets Flagged

The rule fires when a directory contains Go source files (registered as a Go project directory) but the file go.sum is absent from that same directory. This typically means the project was initialized with go mod init but go mod tidy was never run, or go.sum was deliberately excluded from version control via .gitignore.

// FLAGGED: project directory has go.mod but no go.sum
// $ ls
// go.mod   main.go
// (go.sum is missing)

Remediation

  1. Generate the lockfile. Run go mod tidy in the directory containing go.mod. This downloads all dependencies, resolves the full dependency graph, and writes both go.sum and an updated go.mod.
go mod tidy
  1. Commit go.sum to version control. The file must be present in source control so every build — locally and in CI — uses the same verified checksums.
git add go.sum
git commit -m "chore: add go.sum lockfile"
  1. Verify integrity before building. In CI pipelines, add a verification step to confirm no dependency has been tampered with since the last commit:
go mod verify

  1. Prevent accidental exclusion. Check that go.sum is not listed in .gitignore. If it is, remove that line.

  2. Use GONOSUMCHECK with caution. The GONOSUMCHECK environment variable bypasses checksum verification for matched module paths. Only use it for internal modules hosted on private infrastructure that is not accessible to the Go checksum database, and never set it globally in CI.

# SAFE: verify module checksums before any build step
go mod verify && go build ./...

References