CVE-2021-21300

malicious repositories can execute remote code while cloning

Published Mar 9, 2021 CVSS 3.1 · 8 High EPSS 88.5% KEV · Not listed
Description
Git is an open-source distributed revision control system. In affected versions of Git a specially crafted repository that contains symbolic links as well as files using a clean/smudge filter such as Git LFS, may cause just-checked out script to be executed while cloning onto a case-insensitive file system such as NTFS, HFS+ or APFS (i.e. the default file systems on Windows and macOS). Note that clean/smudge filters have to be configured for that. Git for Windows configures Git LFS by default, and is therefore vulnerable. The problem has been patched in the versions published on Tuesday, March 9th, 2021. As a workaound, if symbolic link support is disabled in Git (e.g. via `git config --global core.symlinks false`), the described attack won't work. Likewise, if no clean/smudge filters such as Git LFS are configured globally (i.e. _before_ cloning), the attack is foiled. As always, it is best to avoid cloning repositories from untrusted sources. The earliest impacted version is 2.14.2. The fix versions are: 2.30.1, 2.29.3, 2.28.1, 2.27.1, 2.26.3, 2.25.5, 2.24.4, 2.23.4, 2.22.5, 2.21.4, 2.20.5, 2.19.6, 2.18.5, 2.17.62.17.6.

Remediation

No solution or workaround provided in the CVE record

Tracking

Sign in to view the affected projects.

Advisories

Source ID Title
Debian DLA Debian DLA DLA-3145-1 git security update
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-4761-1 Git vulnerability
History
Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics epss

{'score': 0.72557}

epss

{'score': 0.75144}

Weaknesses

Sources

Status
PUBLISHED
Assigner
GitHub_M
Published
Updated
Aug 3, 2024, 6:09 PM
Reserved
Dec 22, 2020, 12:00 AM
Status
Modified
Published
Mar 9, 2021, 8:15 PM
Modified
Jun 17, 2026, 3:35 AM
Severity
Moderate
Public date
Mar 9, 2021, 6:00 PM