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HIGH severity

Dulwich: Symlink directory traversal in stash pop allows arbitrary file write via intermediate directory symlinksGHSA-cm62-gvxx-vmxx

HIGHFix: jelmer/dulwich@40a542c

GHSA-cm62-gvxx-vmxx is a high-severity (CVSS 8.6) Path Traversal vulnerability in dulwich. A fix is available for dulwich — see the affected versions and patch details below.

Also known asCVE-2026-114098
Published
Updated
Affected
1 pkg
Patched
1 / 1
Exploits
None indexed
Exploitation data as of Oct 23, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, FIRST.org (EPSS)

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗
0.2%probability of exploitation in next 30 days
Lower Risk0.00%
Lower risk than most CVEs4th percentile — riskier than 4% of all scored CVEsHighest risk

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

How urgent is this, really

GHSA-cm62-gvxx-vmxx by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.

Where this sits among everything scored

Of 394,803 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.

Real-World Exposure

1 pkg affected
🐍dulwich

Real-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

Summary

Dulwich's stash.py:pop() function is vulnerable to symlink directory traversal, allowing an attacker to write arbitrary files outside the repository worktree when a victim pops a stash in a malicious repository.

Root Cause

The pop() function at dulwich/stash.py:236 uses os.path.exists(parent_dir) to check if a parent directory exists before writing stashed files. os.path.exists() follows symlinks, so when an intermediate directory in the path is a symlink pointing outside the worktree (e.g., link → ../../.git/hooks), the check passes and subsequent file writes resolve through the symlink.

The validate_path() function (line 228) only validates path component names against INVALID_DOTNAMES — it performs zero filesystem symlink detection. On dulwich 1.2.7 (latest release), build_file_from_blob() has no symlink protection whatsoever.

Impact

An attacker can craft a malicious repository that, when a victim clones it and performs a stash pop operation, writes attacker-controlled content to arbitrary filesystem locations. Writing to .git/hooks/post-checkout achieves Remote Code Execution on the victim's machine on the next git checkout operation.

Attack Scenario

  1. Attacker creates a repository with branch main containing link (symlink → ../../.git/hooks) and branch feature containing link/post-checkout (executable payload)
  2. Victim clones the repository (landing on main — symlink link exists in worktree)
  3. Victim checks out feature, makes changes, runs stash.push()
  4. Victim checks out main (restoring the link symlink)
  5. Victim runs stash.pop(0) — stash contains link/post-checkout
  6. os.path.exists("link") returns True (symlink to existing directory), os.makedirs skipped
  7. build_file_from_blob(blob, mode, "link/post-checkout") → open("link/post-checkout", "wb") follows the intermediate symlink → payload written to .git/hooks/post-checkout
  8. Next checkout operation triggers the hook → RCE

Suggested Fix

Before writing any file, verify that no component of the target path resolves through a symlink outside the worktree. Use os.path.realpath(parent_dir) and confirm it stays within the repository root. Alternatively, use os.open() with O_NOFOLLOW on each path component.

Reported by zx (Jace)

Affected Packages

1 total 1 fixed
EcosystemPackageVulnerable rangeFix
🐍PyPIdulwich≥ 0.22.5&&< 1.2.81.2.8pip install --upgrade 'dulwich==1.2.8'

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

  1. Detect

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

  2. Fix

    Update dulwich to 1.2.8 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-cm62-gvxx-vmxx is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

  3. Workarounds

    Resolve every user-supplied path to its canonical form and reject anything that escapes the intended directory, and run the component under an account that has no read or write access outside the directory it legitimately serves.

Frequently Asked Questions

## Summary Dulwich's `stash.py:pop()` function is vulnerable to symlink directory traversal, allowing an attacker to write arbitrary files outside the repository worktree when a victim pops a stash in a malicious repository. ## Root Cause The `pop()` function at `dulwich/stash.py:236` uses `os.path.exists(parent_dir)` to check if a parent directory exists before writing stashed files. `os.path.exists()` follows symlinks, so when an intermediate directory in the path is a symlink pointing outside the worktree (e.g., `link → ../../.git/hooks`), the check passes and subsequent file writes reso
O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

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