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Blind local file inclusion

Moderate
Byron published GHSA-cwvm-v4w8-q58c Aug 26, 2023

Package

pip gitpython (pip)

Affected versions

<=3.1.36

Patched versions

3.1.37

Description

Summary

In order to resolve some git references, GitPython reads files from the .git directory, in some places the name of the file being read is provided by the user, GitPython doesn't check if this file is located outside the .git directory. This allows an attacker to make GitPython read any file from the system.

Details

This vulnerability is present in

with open(os.path.join(repodir, str(ref_path)), "rt", encoding="UTF-8") as fp:
value = fp.read().rstrip()

That code joins the base directory with a user given string without checking if the final path is located outside the base directory.

I was able to exploit it from three places, but there may be more code paths that lead to it:

def commit(self, rev: Union[str, Commit_ish, None] = None) -> Commit:

def tree(self, rev: Union[Tree_ish, str, None] = None) -> "Tree":

def diff(

PoC

Running GitPython within any repo should work, here is an example with the GitPython repo.

import git

r = git.Repo(".")

# This will make GitPython read the README.md file from the root of the repo
r.commit("../README.md")
r.tree("../README.md")
r.index.diff("../README.md")

# Reading /etc/random
# WARNING: this will probably halt your system, run with caution
# r.commit("../../../../../../../../../dev/random")

Impact

I wasn't able to show the contents of the files (that's why "blind" local file inclusion), depending on how GitPython is being used, this can be used by an attacker for something inoffensive as checking if a file exits, or cause a DoS by making GitPython read a big/infinite file (like /dev/random on Linux systems).

Possible solutions

A solution would be to check that the final path isn't located outside the repodir path (maybe even after resolving symlinks). Maybe there could be other checks in place to make sure that the reference names are valid.


Note

This vulnerability was reported via email, and it was decided to publish it here and make it public, so the community is aware of it, and a fix can be provided.

Severity

Moderate

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Local
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
Low

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L

CVE ID

CVE-2023-41040

Weaknesses

Credits