CVE-2023-49569 — v5
CRITICALCVE-2023-49569 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) Path Traversal vulnerability in github.com/go-git/go-git/v5. A fix is available for github.com/go-git/go-git/v5 — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Maliciously crafted Git server replies can lead to path traversal and RCE on go-git clients
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
- 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-2023-49569.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2023-49569 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 378,156 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
github.com/go-git/go-git/v5🐹gopkg.in/src-d/go-git.v4Real-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Go packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Impact
A path traversal vulnerability was discovered in go-git versions prior to v5.11. This vulnerability allows an attacker to create and amend files across the filesystem. In the worse case scenario, remote code execution could be achieved.
Applications are only affected if they are using the ChrootOS, which is the default when using "Plain" versions of Open and Clone funcs (e.g. PlainClone). Applications using BoundOS or in-memory filesystems are not affected by this issue.
This is a go-git implementation issue and does not affect the upstream git cli.
Patches
Users running versions of go-git from v4 and above are recommended to upgrade to v5.11 in order to mitigate this vulnerability.
Workarounds
In cases where a bump to the latest version of go-git is not possible in a timely manner, we recommend limiting its use to only trust-worthy Git servers.
Credit
Thanks to Ionut Lalu for responsibly disclosing this vulnerability to us.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | github.com/go-git/go-git/v5 | ≥ 5.0.0&&< 5.11.0 | 5.11.0go get github.com/go-git/go-git/v5@v5.11.0 |
| 🐹Go | gopkg.in/src-d/go-git.v4 | ≥ 4.0.0 | No fix |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/go-git/go-git/v5, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update github.com/go-git/go-git/v5 to 5.11.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-49569 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
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.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2023-49569 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2023-49569. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
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.
This problem only affects the go implementation and not the original git cli code. Applications using BoundOS or in-memory filesystems are not affected by this issue. Clients should be limited to connect to only trusted git servers to reduce the risk of compromise. In OpenShift Container Platform (OCP) the vulnerable…
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Builds for Red Hat OpenShift | openshift-builds-controller-container | RHSA-2024:6221 |
| multicluster-globalhub 1.0 for RHEL 8 | multicluster-globalhub/multicluster-globalhub-grafana-rhel8:v1.0.2-4 | RHSA-2024:0989 |
| OPENSHIFT-BUILDS-1.0-RHEL-8 | openshift-builds/openshift-builds-controller-rhel8:v1.0.1-4 | RHSA-2024:1557 |
| Openshift Serverless 1 on RHEL 8 | openshift-serverless-clients-0:1.10.0-6.el8 | RHSA-2024:0880 |
| Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2.9 for RHEL 8 | rhacm2/multicluster-operators-subscription-rhel8:v2.9.2-2 | RHSA-2024:0298 |
| Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security 4.3 | advanced-cluster-security/rhacs-central-db-rhel8:4.3.6-2 | RHSA-2024:1549 |
| Red Hat Ceph Storage 5.3 | ceph-2:16.2.10-266.el8cp | RHSA-2024:4118 |
| Red Hat Ceph Storage 6.1 | rhceph/keepalived-rhel9:2.2.8-11 | RHSA-2024:2633 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2023-49569 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2023-49569 across Go dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.