CVE-2026-105437

Heap-based Buffer Overflow in Git

Published Nov 10, 2026 CVSS 3.1 · 7.5 High EPSS < 1% KEV · Not listed
Description
Affected versions of Git have a heap buffer overflow in the three-way merge
code (xdiff), which an attacker can trigger through a repository they
control.

When Git merges a file, it first adds up the size of the merged
output, allocates a buffer of that size, and then writes the output into
it. That total was kept in a 32-bit signed integer. The
conflict-marker-size attribute, which can be set from a committed
.gitattributes file, accepts any positive integer, and the markers are
written several times for every conflict. A small file with a huge marker
size and many separate conflicts can therefore push the total past 4 GiB,
so the integer wraps to a small value and Git writes attacker-controlled
merge output past the end of a buffer that is too small. At minimum this
crashes Git, and because the overflow is large and its contents are largely
attacker-controlled, worse heap corruption is possible.

Any command that does a textual three-way merge can trigger it, such
as git-merge(1), git-rebase(1), git-cherry-pick(1), and
git-merge-tree(1). The latter is most likely a target for Git forges,
which might use git-merge-tree(1) on the server-side to check
mergeability. When the server reads attributes from trees in the
repository (for example through attr.tree or --attr-source), any
user who can push branches and request that they be merged (for
example by opening a pull or merge request) can trigger the overflow
without anyone else doing anything, and the data they push is small
because the oversized output only appears during the merge.

The problem has been patched by computing the size as size_t and
checking every addition for overflow, so Git stops with an error
instead of overflowing.

Servers that cannot upgrade right away can add

* conflict-marker-size=7

to each repository's info/attributes as a workaround, which overrides
any in-tree .gitattributes, or turn off server-side mergeability checks for
untrusted repositories.

Remediation

Vendor Solution

Upgrade to versions 2.50.2, 2.51.3, 2.52.1, 2.53.1, 2.54.1, 2.55.1, 2.56.1 or above.

Tracking

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Advisories

No advisories available
History
Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Git
Git git
Vendors & Products Git
Git git
Type Values Removed Values Added
Description Affected versions of Git have a heap buffer overflow in the three-way merge code (xdiff), which an attacker can trigger through a repository they control. When Git merges a file, it first adds up the size of the merged output, allocates a buffer of that size, and then writes the output into it. That total was kept in a 32-bit signed integer. The conflict-marker-size attribute, which can be set from a committed .gitattributes file, accepts any positive integer, and the markers are written several times for every conflict. A small file with a huge marker size and many separate conflicts can therefore push the total past 4 GiB, so the integer wraps to a small value and Git writes attacker-controlled merge output past the end of a buffer that is too small. At minimum this crashes Git, and because the overflow is large and its contents are largely attacker-controlled, worse heap corruption is possible. Any command that does a textual three-way merge can trigger it, such as git-merge(1), git-rebase(1), git-cherry-pick(1), and git-merge-tree(1). The latter is most likely a target for Git forges, which might use git-merge-tree(1) on the server-side to check mergeability. When the server reads attributes from trees in the repository (for example through attr.tree or --attr-source), any user who can push branches and request that they be merged (for example by opening a pull or merge request) can trigger the overflow without anyone else doing anything, and the data they push is small because the oversized output only appears during the merge. The problem has been patched by computing the size as size_t and checking every addition for overflow, so Git stops with an error instead of overflowing. Servers that cannot upgrade right away can add * conflict-marker-size=7 to each repository's info/attributes as a workaround, which overrides any in-tree .gitattributes, or turn off server-side mergeability checks for untrusted repositories.
Title Heap-based Buffer Overflow in Git
First Time appeared Git-scm
Git-scm git
Weaknesses CWE-122
CPEs cpe:2.3:a:git-scm:git:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
Vendors & Products Git-scm
Git-scm git
References
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 7.5, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H'}

Weaknesses

Sources

Status
PUBLISHED
Assigner
GitLab
Published
Updated
Nov 10, 2026, 6:34 PM
Reserved
Oct 5, 2026, 1:05 PM
Status
Deferred
Published
Nov 10, 2026, 7:17 PM
Modified
Nov 12, 2026, 7:05 PM
Severity
Important
Public date
Nov 10, 2026, 6:00 PM