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HIGH severity

Remote code execution in dependabot-core branch names when cloningGHSA-23f7-99jx-m54r

HIGHFix: dependabot/dependabot-core#2727

GHSA-23f7-99jx-m54r is a high-severity (CVSS 8.7) CWE-74 vulnerability in dependabot-omnibus. 1 public exploit reference exists, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for dependabot-omnibus — see the affected versions and patch details below.

Also known asCVE-2020-26222
Published
Updated
Affected
2 pkgs
Patched
2 / 2
Exploits
1 known
Exploitation data as of Oct 12, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, FIRST.org (EPSS)

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗
3.1%probability of exploitation in next 30 days
Lower Risk+0.15%
Lower risk than most CVEs87th percentile — riskier than 87% of all scored CVEsHighest risk
0.00%1.29%2.58%3.87%0.5%2.9%2.9%3.1%Jun 26Aug 26Oct 26

Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.

How urgent is this, really

GHSA-23f7-99jx-m54r by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.

Where this sits among everything scored

Of 385,738 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.

Real-World Exposure

2 pkgs affected
💎dependabot-omnibus💎dependabot-common

Real-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects RubyGems packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.

Description

Impact

Remote code execution vulnerability in dependabot-common and dependabot-go_modules when a source branch name contains malicious injectable bash code.

For example, if Dependabot is configured to use the following source branch name: "/$({curl,127.0.0.1})", Dependabot will make a HTTP request to the following URL: 127.0.0.1 when cloning the source repository.

When Dependabot is configured to clone the source repository during an update, Dependabot runs a shell command to git clone the repository:

git clone --no-tags --no-recurse-submodules --depth=1 --branch=<BRANCH> --single-branch <GITHUB_REPO_URL> repo/contents/path

Dependabot will always clone the source repository for go_modules during the file fetching step and can be configured to clone the repository for other package managers using the FileFetcher class from dependabot-common.

source = Dependabot::Source.new(
  provider: "github",
  repo: "repo/name",
  directory: "/",
  branch: "/$({curl,127.0.0.1})",
)

repo_contents_path = "./file/path"
fetcher = Dependabot::FileFetchers.for_package_manager("bundler").
                  new(source: source, credentials: [],
                  repo_contents_path: repo_contents_path)
fetcher.clone_repo_contents

Patches

The fix was applied to version 0.125.1: https://github.com/dependabot/dependabot-core/pull/2727

Workarounds

Escape the branch name prior to passing it to the Dependabot::Source class.

For example using shellwords:

require "shellwords"
branch = Shellwords.escape("/$({curl,127.0.0.1})")
source = Dependabot::Source.new(
  provider: "github",
  repo: "repo/name",
  directory: "/",
  branch: branch,
)

Affected Packages

2 total 2 fixed
EcosystemPackageVulnerable rangeFix
💎RubyGemsdependabot-omnibus≥ 0.119.0.beta1&&< 0.125.10.125.1bundle update dependabot-omnibus --conservative
💎RubyGemsdependabot-common≥ 0.119.0.beta1&&< 0.125.10.125.1bundle update dependabot-common --conservative

Affected Products

1 product · 3 configurations
Application
dependabotdependabot_project
≥ 0.119.1 && < 0.125.1
1 version
0.119.0
Exploits & PoCs
1

Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.

Dependabot is a set of packages for automated dependency management for …

github.comNVDDec 2020

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

  1. Detect

    Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for dependabot-omnibus, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.

  2. Fix

    Update dependabot-omnibus to 0.125.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-23f7-99jx-m54r is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

  3. 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.

Frequently Asked Questions

### Impact Remote code execution vulnerability in `dependabot-common` and `dependabot-go_modules` when a source branch name contains malicious injectable bash code. For example, if Dependabot is configured to use the following source branch name: `"/$({curl,127.0.0.1})"`, Dependabot will make a HTTP request to the following URL: 127.0.0.1 when cloning the source repository. When Dependabot is configured to clone the source repository during an update, Dependabot runs a shell command to git clone the repository: ```bash git clone --no-tags --no-recurse-submodules --depth=1 --branch=<BRANCH>
O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

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Remote code execution in dependabot-core branch…