CVE-2020-11008 Malicious URLs can still cause Git to send a stored credential to the wrong server
Attackers can trick Git into sending stored credentials to a malicious server via specially crafted URLs, leaking passwords to unauthorized parties.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2020-11008?
CVE-2020-11008 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Canonical Ubuntu Linux, published on 21 Apr 2020. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Official description
Affected versions of Git have a vulnerability whereby Git can be tricked into sending private credentials to a host controlled by an attacker. This bug is similar to CVE-2020-5260(GHSA-qm7j-c969-7j4q). The fix for that bug still left the door open for an exploit where _some_ credential is leaked (but the attacker cannot control which one). Git uses external "credential helper" programs to store and retrieve passwords or other credentials from secure storage provided by the operating system. Specially-crafted URLs that are considered illegal as of the recently published Git versions can cause Git to send a "blank" pattern to helpers, missing hostname and protocol fields. Many helpers will interpret this as matching _any_ URL, and will return some unspecified stored password, leaking the password to an attacker's server. The vulnerability can be triggered by feeding a malicious URL to `git clone`. However, the affected URLs look rather suspicious; the likely vector would be through systems which automatically clone URLs not visible to the user, such as Git submodules, or package systems built around Git. The root of the problem is in Git itself, which should not be feeding blank input to helpers. However, the ability to exploit the vulnerability in practice depends on which helpers are in use. Credential helpers which are known to trigger the vulnerability: - Git's "store" helper - Git's "cache" helper - the "osxkeychain" helper that ships in Git's "contrib" directory Credential helpers which are known to be safe even with vulnerable versions of Git: - Git Credential Manager for Windows Any helper not in this list should be assumed to trigger the vulnerability.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-11008?
It affects 4 products.
Linux distribution packages (40)
emacs-git Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 0:1.8.3.1-23.el7_8 |
emacs-git-el Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 0:1.8.3.1-23.el7_8 |
git Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 0:1.8.3.1-23.el7_8 |
git-all Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 0:1.8.3.1-23.el7_8 |
git-bzr Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 0:1.8.3.1-23.el7_8 |
git-cvs Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 0:1.8.3.1-23.el7_8 |
git-daemon Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 0:1.8.3.1-23.el7_8 |
git-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 0:1.8.3.1-23.el7_8 |
git-email Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 0:1.8.3.1-23.el7_8 |
git-gnome-keyring Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 0:1.8.3.1-23.el7_8 |
git-gui Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 0:1.8.3.1-23.el7_8 |
git-hg Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 0:1.8.3.1-23.el7_8 |
git-instaweb Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 0:1.8.3.1-23.el7_8 |
git-p4 Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 0:1.8.3.1-23.el7_8 |
git-svn Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 0:1.8.3.1-23.el7_8 |
gitk Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 0:1.8.3.1-23.el7_8 |
gitweb Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 0:1.8.3.1-23.el7_8 |
perl-Git Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 0:1.8.3.1-23.el7_8 |
perl-Git-SVN Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::client | All versions | 0:1.8.3.1-23.el7_8 |
emacs-git Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::computenode | All versions | 0:1.8.3.1-23.el7_8 |
emacs-git-el Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::computenode | All versions | 0:1.8.3.1-23.el7_8 |
git Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::computenode | All versions | 0:1.8.3.1-23.el7_8 |
git-all Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::computenode | All versions | 0:1.8.3.1-23.el7_8 |
git-bzr Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::computenode | All versions | 0:1.8.3.1-23.el7_8 |
git-cvs Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::computenode | All versions | 0:1.8.3.1-23.el7_8 |
git-daemon Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::computenode | All versions | 0:1.8.3.1-23.el7_8 |
git-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::computenode | All versions | 0:1.8.3.1-23.el7_8 |
git-email Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::computenode | All versions | 0:1.8.3.1-23.el7_8 |
git-gnome-keyring Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::computenode | All versions | 0:1.8.3.1-23.el7_8 |
git-gui Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::computenode | All versions | 0:1.8.3.1-23.el7_8 |
git-hg Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::computenode | All versions | 0:1.8.3.1-23.el7_8 |
git-instaweb Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::computenode | All versions | 0:1.8.3.1-23.el7_8 |
git-p4 Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::computenode | All versions | 0:1.8.3.1-23.el7_8 |
git-svn Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::computenode | All versions | 0:1.8.3.1-23.el7_8 |
gitk Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::computenode | All versions | 0:1.8.3.1-23.el7_8 |
gitweb Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::computenode | All versions | 0:1.8.3.1-23.el7_8 |
perl-Git Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::computenode | All versions | 0:1.8.3.1-23.el7_8 |
perl-Git-SVN Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::computenode | All versions | 0:1.8.3.1-23.el7_8 |
emacs-git Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::server | All versions | 0:1.8.3.1-23.el7_8 |
emacs-git-el Red Hat:enterprise_linux:7::server | All versions | 0:1.8.3.1-23.el7_8 |
Products include Canonical Ubuntu Linux, Debian Debian Linux, Fedoraproject Fedora, Git-Scm Git.
How do I fix CVE-2020-11008?
Upgrade to a fixed version.
Is CVE-2020-11008 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-11008 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Canonical Ubuntu Linux
Sources
Also known as ALPINE-CVE-2020-11008, CLEANSTART-2025-CR90438, DEBIAN-CVE-2020-11008, DLA-2182-1, DSA-4659-1, MGASA-2020-0181 and 7 more.