CVE-2022-42906 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.8) CWE-77 vulnerability in powerline-gitstatus. 1 public exploit or proof-of-concept reference is indexed, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for powerline-gitstatus — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Powerline Gitstatus vulnerable to arbitrary code execution
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2022-42906.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
Where this sits among everything scored
Real-World Exposure
powerline-gitstatusReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects PyPI packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
powerline-gitstatus (aka Powerline Gitstatus) before 1.3.2 allows arbitrary code execution. git repositories can contain per-repository configuration that changes the behavior of git, including running arbitrary commands. When using powerline-gitstatus, changing to a directory automatically runs git commands in order to display information about the current repository in the prompt. If an attacker can convince a user to change their current directory to one controlled by the attacker, such as in a shared filesystem or extracted archive, powerline-gitstatus will run arbitrary commands under the attacker's control. NOTE: this is similar to CVE-2022-20001.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | powerline-gitstatus | all versions | 1.3.2pip install --upgrade 'powerline-gitstatus==1.3.2' |
Affected Products
debian linuxdebianpowerline gitstatuspowerline_gitstatus_projectResearch use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for powerline-gitstatus, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update powerline-gitstatus to 1.3.2 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2022-42906 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Stop passing untrusted input into the interpreter or shell: call the affected binary with an argument array rather than a composed command string, reject anything outside a strict allowlist of expected values, and run the component under an account that cannot reach beyond the work it legitimately does.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2022-42906 in your dependencies?
Find it across PyPI, including transitive dependencies.