CVE-2018-17456 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) CWE-88 vulnerability. 7 public exploit references exist, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available — see the affected versions and patch details below.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2018-17456 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). In the shaded patch-first corner (EPSS 50%+, CVSS 7.0+).
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 397,508 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the ≥ 90% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.
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.
Affected Products
ubuntu linuxcanonicaldebian linuxdebiangitgit-scmansible towerredhatenterprise linuxredhatenterprise linux desktopredhatResearch use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Git Submodule - Arbitrary Code Execution
by joernchen · Oct 16, 2018
Git Submodule - Arbitrary Code Execution (PoC)
by Junio C Hamano · Oct 5, 2018
Detection & mitigation playbook
VulnerabilityDetect
Identify every host running the affected component and compare the installed build against the fixed version below — for source-built or distro-packaged software the version string, not a lockfile, is the source of truth (`dpkg -l`, `rpm -q`, or the binary's own `--version`).
Fix
Upgrade the affected component to the fixed release for CVE-2018-17456, or apply your distribution's backported patch — distro builds are often patched at an older version number, so check your vendor's advisory rather than the upstream version alone.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
OpenShift Container Platform (OCP) source-to-image uses the git client packaged with the OCP container images. Since RHEL7 and its associated images are impacted, source-to-image is also impacted. The atomic-openshift package running on the masters controls the code that determines the source-to-image build image in…
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 | git-0:1.7.1-10.el6_10 | RHSA-2020:0316 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 | git-0:1.8.3.1-20.el7 | RHSA-2018:3408 |
| Red Hat Software Collections for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 | rh-git29-git-0:2.9.3-7.el6 | RHSA-2018:3541 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2018-17456 in your dependencies?
Find it across , including transitive dependencies.