Git: file access flaw under attack

What is affected

Git is mostly run by companies, schools and public bodies, not on home computers. You are unlikely to have it yourself, but organisations that hold your data may. Breaches that start with flaws like this one are how personal data ends up leaked.

Git contains a link following vulnerability that stems from Git’s inconsistent handling of carriage return characters in configuration files.

What an attacker can do

This is a file access flaw. It lets an attacker read or write files they should never reach, such as configuration files that hold passwords, or upload a malicious file that the system then runs.

How it is reached

Over the internet or network

Access the attacker needs

A basic user account

Does the victim have to do something?

Yes, the victim must open or click something

What to do

1. At home: nothing to install. Keep your own devices updated and use a different password for every service, so that a breach at one organisation does not open your other accounts.
2. If you administer Git at work: apply the vendor's fix or mitigation now and review logs for signs of compromise, because the flaw was being exploited before it was listed.
3. If the product is past its support date and no fix exists, take it off the internet or retire it.

Apply mitigations per vendor instructions, follow applicable BOD 22-01 guidance for cloud services, or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.

Vendor advisories and fixes

• github.comgithub.com/git/git/security/advisories/GHSA-vwqx-4fm8-6qc9
• access.redhat.comaccess.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:13933
• alas.aws.amazon.comalas.aws.amazon.com/AL2/ALAS2-2025-2941.html
• linux.oracle.comlinux.oracle.com/errata/ELSA-2025-11534.html
• msrc.microsoft.commsrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2025-48384

How urgent is it

CISA added this vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalogue on August 25, 2025, which means there is reliable evidence of attacks in the wild. US federal agencies must fix it by September 15, 2025, a deadline that has already passed. That deadline does not bind anyone else, but it shows how seriously the agency rates it.

The EPSS model estimates a 4.2% probability that this flaw will be exploited somewhere in the next 30 days. That is higher than 91% of all scored vulnerabilities.

Its CVSS severity score is 8.0 out of 10 (high), as recorded in the US National Vulnerability Database.

Technical description

Git is a fast, scalable, distributed revision control system with an unusually rich command set that provides both high-level operations and full access to internals. When reading a config value, Git strips any trailing carriage return and line feed (CRLF). When writing a config entry, values with a trailing CR are not quoted, causing the CR to be lost when the config is later read. When initializing a submodule, if the submodule path contains a trailing CR, the altered path is read resulting in the submodule being checked out to an incorrect location. If a symlink exists that points the altered path to the submodule hooks directory, and the submodule contains an executable post-checkout hook, the script may be unintentionally executed after checkout. This vulnerability is fixed in 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.