CVE-2020-5260
Affected versions of Git have a vulnerability whereby Git can be tricked into sending private credentials to a host controlled by an attacker.
Does this matter?
High impact if exploited, but EPSS currently rates exploitation as unlikely (9.97%). Schedule it in the normal patch cycle and watch for a rise in EPSS or a public exploit.
Description
Affected versions of Git have a vulnerability whereby Git can be tricked into sending private credentials to a host controlled by an attacker. Git uses external "credential helper" programs to store and retrieve passwords or other credentials from secure storage provided by the operating system. Specially-crafted URLs that contain an encoded newline can inject unintended values into the credential helper protocol stream, causing the credential helper to retrieve the password for one server (e.g., good.example.com) for an HTTP request being made to another server (e.g., evil.example.com), resulting in credentials for the former being sent to the latter. There are no restrictions on the relationship between the two, meaning that an attacker can craft a URL that will present stored credentials for any host to a host of their choosing. The vulnerability can be triggered by feeding a malicious URL to git clone. However, the affected URLs look rather suspicious; the likely vector would be through systems which automatically clone URLs not visible to the user, such as Git submodules, or package systems built around Git. The problem has been patched in the versions published on April 14th, 2020, going back to v2.17.x. Anyone wishing to backport the change further can do so by applying commit 9a6bbee (the full release includes extra checks for git fsck, but that commit is sufficient to protect clients against the vulnerability). The patched versions are: 2.17.4, 2.18.3, 2.19.4, 2.20.3, 2.21.2, 2.22.3, 2.23.2, 2.24.2, 2.25.3, 2.26.1.
- CVSS 3.1
- 7.5 HIGHCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
- EPSS
- 9.97% probability · 96th percentile
- Public exploits
- None in Exploit-DB
- CISA KEV
- Not listed
- Weakness
- CWE-20, CWE-522
- Affected
- git/git · git-scm/git · canonical/ubuntu linux · debian/debian linux · fedoraproject/fedora · opensuse/leap
- Source
- security-advisories@github.com
EPSS 10.0% since 26 October 2026; no change recorded yet. The dashed line is the ten per cent mark our analysts treat as “patch before the next change window”. Points are recorded when the score first appears and whenever it moves by a percentage point or more.
References
- http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-04/msg00027.htmlThird Party Advisory
- http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-05/msg00003.htmlThird Party Advisory
- http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/157250/Git-Credential-Helper-Protocol-Newline-Injection.htmlThird Party Advisory, VDB Entry
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2020/04/15/5Mailing List
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2020/04/15/6Mailing List, Third Party Advisory
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2020/04/20/1Mailing List, Third Party Advisory
- https://github.com/git/git/commit/9a6bbee8006c24b46a85d29e7b38cfa79e9ab21bPatch, Third Party Advisory
- https://github.com/git/git/security/advisories/GHSA-qm7j-c969-7j4qMitigation, Patch, Third Party Advisory
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2020/04/msg00010.htmlMailing List, Third Party Advisory
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/74Q7WVJ6FKLIN62VS2JD2XCNWK5TNKOW/
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/7TVS5UG6JD3MYIGSBKMIOS6AF7CR5IPI/
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/MOCTR2SEHCPSCOVUQJAGFPGKFMI2VE6V/
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/PN3FUOXKX3AXTULYV53ACABER2W2FSOU/
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/XPCEOIFLLEF24L6GLVJVFZX4CREDEHDF/
- https://lore.kernel.org/git/xmqqy2qy7xn8.fsf%40gitster.c.googlers.com/
- https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202004-13Third Party Advisory
- https://support.apple.com/kb/HT211141Third Party Advisory
- https://usn.ubuntu.com/4329-1/Third Party Advisory
- https://www.debian.org/security/2020/dsa-4657Third Party Advisory
- http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-04/msg00027.htmlThird Party Advisory
- http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-05/msg00003.htmlThird Party Advisory
- http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/157250/Git-Credential-Helper-Protocol-Newline-Injection.htmlThird Party Advisory, VDB Entry
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2020/04/15/5Mailing List
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2020/04/15/6Mailing List, Third Party Advisory
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2020/04/20/1Mailing List, Third Party Advisory
- https://github.com/git/git/commit/9a6bbee8006c24b46a85d29e7b38cfa79e9ab21bPatch, Third Party Advisory
- https://github.com/git/git/security/advisories/GHSA-qm7j-c969-7j4qMitigation, Patch, Third Party Advisory
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2020/04/msg00010.htmlMailing List, Third Party Advisory
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/74Q7WVJ6FKLIN62VS2JD2XCNWK5TNKOW/
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/7TVS5UG6JD3MYIGSBKMIOS6AF7CR5IPI/
Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA, exploits from Exploit-DB. Refreshed daily. Download this record as JSON.