Quantum Secular Labs / Blog / Advisories

CVE-2018-17456: Git Scm: Remote code execution

CVE-2018-17456 is rated critical with a CVSS v3.0 base score of 9.8 and affects Git Scm, along with 10 other products in NVD’s configuration data. Per its scoring, it can be exploited over the network, without authentication, without any user interaction. The scored impact on confidentiality, integrity and availability is the highest available.

Vulnerability description

Git before 2.14.5, 2.15.x before 2.15.3, 2.16.x before 2.16.5, 2.17.x before 2.17.2, 2.18.x before 2.18.1, and 2.19.x before 2.19.1 allows remote code execution during processing of a recursive "git clone" of a superproject if a .gitmodules file has a URL field beginning with a '-' character.

Severity breakdown

CVSS v3.0 9.8: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

  • Attack vector: Network. Exploitable remotely over the network, with no need for local or physical access.
  • Attack complexity: Low. No special conditions; the attack can be repeated reliably.
  • Privileges required: None. No account or prior access is needed.
  • User interaction: None. No action from any user is needed.
  • Scope: Unchanged. Impact stays within the vulnerable component.
  • Confidentiality impact: High. Total loss of confidentiality; sensitive data can be fully disclosed.
  • Integrity impact: High. Total loss of integrity; data or system state can be fully modified.
  • Availability impact: High. Total loss of availability; the component can be shut down.

Underlying weakness

CWE-88: Improper Neutralization of Argument Delimiters in a Command

The product constructs a string for a command to be executed by a separate component in another control sphere, but it does not properly delimit the intended arguments, options, or switches within that command string.

Affected products

  • Git Scm: from 2.14.0 before 2.14.5; from 2.15.0 before 2.15.3; from 2.16.0 before 2.16.5; from 2.17.0 before 2.17.2; from 2.18.0 before 2.18.1; from 2.19.0 before 2.19.1
  • Red Hat Ansible Tower: 3.3
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux: 6.0; 6.7; 7.0; 7.3; 7.4; 7.5; 7.6
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop: 7.0
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server: 7.0
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Aus: 7.6
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Eus: 7.6
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Tus: 7.6
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation: 7.0
  • Canonical Ubuntu Linux: 14.04; 16.04; 18.04
  • Debian Linux: 9.0

References