CVE-2026-73800
Description
A flaw was found in Gitea. When executing an automated workflow triggered by a pull request, Gitea improperly loads local reusable workflow definitions from the untrusted fork rather than the trusted target repository. A remote attacker submitting a pull request can exploit this flaw to achieve arbitrary code execution in the context of the base repository, potentially exposing repository and organization secrets.
Statement
This vulnerability is rated as having Important impact because an authenticated user submitting a pull request can breach isolation boundaries to run unauthorized tasks endowed with privileged repository credentials. Although this allows substantial compromise of build secrets, exploitation requires repository pipelines to explicitly utilize pull_request_target triggers with local reusable tasks. Red Hat products are not affected because Red Hat does not distribute the Gitea service or its native CI runner. Ancillary components, such as Pipelines as Code integrations, only interact with Gitea via client APIs and do not include the vulnerable server-side workflow dispatching logic.
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Confidentiality,Integrity,Availability
Technical Impact: Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands
An attacker could insert malicious functionality into the program by causing the program to download code that the attacker has placed into the untrusted control sphere, such as a malicious web site. This could enable the injection of malware, information exposure by granting excessive privileges or permissions to the untrusted functionality, DOM-based XSS vulnerabilities, stealing user's cookies, open redirect to malware (CWE-601), etc.
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