#VU15167 Command injection in Git products - CVE-2018-17456

Vulnerability identifier: #VU15167

Vulnerability risk: High

CVSSv4.0: 9.3 [CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:A/U:Amber]

CVE-ID: CVE-2018-17456

CWE-ID: CWE-77

Exploitation vector: Network

Exploit availability: Yes

Vulnerable software:
Git
Client/Desktop applications / Software for system administration
GitHub Desktop
Client/Desktop applications / Other client software
Atom
Client/Desktop applications / Other client software

Vendor: Git

Description
The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to execute arbitrary commands on the target system.

The weakness exists in the Git command line client, Git Desktop, and Atom due to command injection during processing of a recursive "git clone" of a superproject if a .gitmodules file has a URL field beginning with a '-' character.. A remote attacker can use a specially crafted.gitmodules file that contains an URL that starts with a dash. By using a dash, when Git clones a repository using the --recurse-submodules argument, the command will interpret the URL as an option that can be used to execute arbitrary code with elevated privileges.

Successful exploitation of the vulnerability may result in system compromise.

Mitigation
The vulnerability has been fixed in Git 2.19.1 (with backports in 2.14.5, 2.15.3, 2.16.5, 2.17.2, and 2.18.1), GitHub Desktop 1.4.2 and 1.4.3-beta0, and Atom 1.31.2 and 1.32.0-beta3.

Vulnerable software versions

Git: 2.0.0 - 2.0.5, 2.1.0 - 2.19.0, 2.2.0 - 2.2.3, 2.3.0 - 2.3.10, 2.4 - 2.4.12, 2.5 - 2.5.6, 2.6 - 2.6.7, 2.7 - 2.7.6, 2.8 - 2.8.6, 2.9 - 2.9.5

GitHub Desktop: 1.2.6 - 1.4.1

Atom: 1.26.1 - 1.31.1

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External links
https://marc.info/?l=git&m=153875888916397&w=2

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Q & A

Can this vulnerability be exploited remotely?

Yes. This vulnerability can be exploited by a remote non-authenticated attacker via the Internet.

Is there known malware, which exploits this vulnerability?

No. We are not aware of malware exploiting this vulnerability. However, a fully functional exploit for this vulnerability is available.