CVE-2023-22381 Code injection in GitHub Enterprise Server leading to arbitrary environment variables in GitHub Actions

Medium 4.1 Published 2 Mar 2023 Updated 5 Mar 2025

Attacker with environment variable control can inject code in GitHub Actions on Windows runners, leading to arbitrary code execution.

Exploited in the wild: Not known
Login needed: An administrator
Attackable: Over the internet
Victim action needed: Not needed
Fix: None listed

What is CVE-2023-22381?

CVE-2023-22381 is a medium-severity code injection vulnerability in Github Enterprise Server, published on 2 Mar 2023. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, with no action from the victim.

Official description

A code injection vulnerability was identified in GitHub Enterprise Server that allowed setting arbitrary environment variables from a single environment variable value in GitHub Actions when using a Windows based runner. To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker would need existing permission to control the value of environment variables for use with GitHub Actions. This vulnerability affected all versions of GitHub Enterprise Server prior to 3.8.0 and was fixed in versions 3.4.15, 3.5.12, 3.6.8, 3.7.5. This vulnerability was reported via the GitHub Bug Bounty program.

Weakness: CWE-94

Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-22381?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Github Enterprise Server.

How do I fix CVE-2023-22381?

No fix has been published for CVE-2023-22381 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

Upgrade, and never evaluate templates, expressions or code built from user input. More about Code injection.

Is CVE-2023-22381 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-22381 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Github Enterprise Server vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as GHSA-c8m8-vx8j-3wr3.