CVE-2020-5260

Description

A flaw was found in git. Credentials can be leaked through the use of a crafted URL that contains a newline, fooling the credential helper to give information for a different host. Highest threat from the vulnerability is to data confidentiality.

Statement

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 is not affected by this flaw as the vulnerable version of git, version 1.7.9-rc0 and later, was never packaged for this instance of RHEL.

Mitigation

The most complete workaround is to disable credential helpers altogether:

git config --unset credential.helper
git config --global --unset credential.helper
git config --system --unset credential.helper

An alternative is to avoid malicious URLs:
1. Examine the hostname and username portion of URLs fed to git clone for the presence of encoded newlines (%0a) or evidence of credential-protocol injections (e.g., host=github.com)
2. Avoid using submodules with untrusted repositories (don't use clone --recurse-submodules; use git submodule update only after examining the URLs found in .gitmodules)
3. Avoid tools which may run git clone on untrusted URLs under the hood

Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details

Info alert:Important note

CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authority (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications).

CVSS v3 Score Breakdown

Red HatNVDcve.org
Base Score7.57.5N/A
Attack VectorNetworkNetworkN/A
Attack ComplexityLowLowN/A
Privileges RequiredNoneNoneN/A
User InteractionNoneNoneN/A
ScopeUnchangedUnchangedN/A
ConfidentialityHighHighN/A
Integrity ImpactNoneNoneN/A
Availability ImpactNoneNoneN/A

Vector

Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N

NVD: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N

Understanding the Weakness (CWE)

Availability

Technical Impact: DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart; DoS: Resource Consumption (CPU); DoS: Resource Consumption (Memory)

An attacker could provide unexpected values and cause a program crash or arbitrary control of resource allocation, leading to excessive consumption of resources such as memory and CPU.

Confidentiality

Technical Impact: Read Memory; Read Files or Directories

An attacker could read confidential data if they are able to control resource references.

Integrity,Confidentiality,Availability

Technical Impact: Modify Memory; Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands

An attacker could use malicious input to modify data or possibly alter control flow in unexpected ways, including arbitrary command execution.

Acknowledgements

Red Hat would like to thank the Git project for reporting this issue. Upstream acknowledges Felix Wilhelm (Google project zero) as the original reporter.

Frequently Asked Questions

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