{"id":59556,"date":"2025-07-22T06:32:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T06:32:13","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-10-29T08:17:24","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T14:17:24","slug":"cve-2025-48384-git-submodule-path-traversal-vulnerability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-48384-git-submodule-path-traversal-vulnerability\/","title":{"rendered":"CVE-2025-48384: Git Submodule Path Traversal Vulnerability<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"

Overview<\/strong><\/p>\n

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<\/a> as their version control system.<\/p>\n

Vulnerability Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n

CVE ID: CVE-2025-48384
\nSeverity: High (CVSS: 8.0)
\nAttack Vector: Network
\nPrivileges Required: Low
\nUser Interaction: Required
\nImpact: Potential system<\/a> compromise or data leakage<\/p>\n

Affected Products<\/strong><\/p>\n

Product | Affected Versions<\/p>\n

Git | v2.43.6 and below
\nGit | v2.44.3 and below
\nGit | v2.45.3 and below
\nGit | v2.46.3 and below
\nGit | v2.47.2 and below
\nGit | v2.48.1 and below
\nGit | v2.49.0 and below
\nGit | v2.50.0 and below<\/p>\n

How the Exploit Works<\/strong><\/p>\n

The vulnerability arises from Git’s improper handling of submodule paths<\/a>. 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<\/a> 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<\/a>. This could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary commands<\/a> in the system.<\/p>\n

Conceptual Example Code<\/strong><\/p>\n

Below is a conceptual example of how the vulnerability might be exploited. This pseudocode represents the malicious submodule configuration:<\/p>\n

# Attacker creates a submodule with a trailing CR\ngit submodule add https:\/\/github.com\/attacker\/repo.git submodule\\r\n# The submodule contains a post-checkout hook\necho \"#!\/bin\/sh\\necho 'Compromised!'\" > .gitmodules\/hooks\/post-checkout\nchmod +x .gitmodules\/hooks\/post-checkout\n# Attacker commits the malicious configuration\ngit add .gitmodules\ngit commit -m \"Add malicious submodule\"<\/code><\/pre>\n
When an unsuspecting user clones the repository and initializes the submodule, the post-checkout hook is executed:<\/p>\n
git clone https:\/\/github.com\/attacker\/repo.git\ncd repo\ngit submodule update --init\n# Output: Compromised!<\/code><\/pre>\n
Mitigation<\/strong><\/p>\n
Users are urged to apply the vendor patch immediately. Git has released patches for this vulnerability in versions<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"vendor":[79],"product":[],"attack_vector":[85],"asset_type":[],"severity":[],"exploit_status":[],"class_list":["post-59556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","vendor-github","attack_vector-directory-traversal"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t