GHSA-m4ch-rfv5-x5g3
MEDIUMgit2-rs fails to verify SSH keys by default
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.
Blast Radius
libgit2-sys🦀libgit2-sys🦀git2Real-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects crates.io packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
The git2 and libgit2-sys crates are Rust wrappers around the libgit2 C library. It was discovered that libgit2 1.5.0 and below did not verify SSH host keys when establishing an SSH connection, exposing users of the library to Man-In-the-Middle attacks.
The libgit2 team assigned CVE-2023-22742 to this vulnerability. The following versions of the libgit2-sys Rust crate have been released:
- libgit2-sys 0.14.2, updating the underlying libgit2 C library to version 1.5.1.
- libgit2-sys 0.13.5, updating the underlying libgit2 C library to version 1.4.5.
A new git2 crate version has also been released, 0.16.1. This version only bumps its libgit2-sys dependency to ensure no vulnerable libgit2-sys versions are used, but contains no code changes: if you update the libgit2-sys version there is no need to also update the git2 crate version.
You can learn more about this vulnerability in libgit2's advisory
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🦀crates.io | libgit2-sys | ≥ 0.14.0&&< 0.14.2 | 0.14.2 |
| 🦀crates.io | libgit2-sys | all versions | 0.13.5 |
| 🦀crates.io | git2 | all versions | 0.16.1 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for libgit2-sys. 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 libgit2-sys to 0.14.2 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-m4ch-rfv5-x5g3 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 GHSA-m4ch-rfv5-x5g3 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 GHSA-m4ch-rfv5-x5g3. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-m4ch-rfv5-x5g3 in your dependencies?
O3 detects GHSA-m4ch-rfv5-x5g3 across crates.io dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.