CVE-2026-5921

Server-Side Request Forgery in GitHub Enterprise Server allowed extraction of sensitive environment variables via timing side-channel attack

Published Apr 21, 2026 CVSS 4.0 · 8.9 High EPSS < 1% KEV · Not listed
Description
A server-side request forgery (SSRF) vulnerability was identified in GitHub Enterprise Server that allowed an attacker to extract sensitive environment variables from the instance through a timing side-channel attack against the notebook rendering service. When private mode was disabled, the notebook viewer followed HTTP redirects without revalidating the destination host, enabling an unauthenticated SSRF to internal services. By chaining this with regex filter queries against an internal API and measuring response time differences, an attacker could infer secret values character by character. Exploitation required that private mode be disabled and that the attacker be able to chain the instance's open redirect endpoint through an external redirect to reach internal services. This vulnerability affected all versions of GitHub Enterprise Server prior to 3.21 and was fixed in versions 3.14.26, 3.15.21, 3.16.17, 3.17.14, 3.18.8, 3.19.5, and 3.20.1. This vulnerability was reported via the GitHub Bug Bounty program.

Remediation

No solution or workaround provided in the CVE record

Tracking

Sign in to view the affected projects.

Advisories

No advisories available
History
Type Values Removed Values Added
CPEs cpe:2.3:a:github:enterprise_server:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:a:github:enterprise_server:3.20.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 8.9, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:L'}

Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics ssvc

{'options': {'Automatable': 'no', 'Exploitation': 'none', 'Technical Impact': 'total'}, 'version': '2.0.3'}

Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Github
Github enterprise Server
Vendors & Products Github
Github enterprise Server
Type Values Removed Values Added
Description A server-side request forgery (SSRF) vulnerability was identified in GitHub Enterprise Server that allowed an attacker to extract sensitive environment variables from the instance through a timing side-channel attack against the notebook rendering service. When private mode was disabled, the notebook viewer followed HTTP redirects without revalidating the destination host, enabling an unauthenticated SSRF to internal services. By chaining this with regex filter queries against an internal API and measuring response time differences, an attacker could infer secret values character by character. Exploitation required that private mode be disabled and that the attacker be able to chain the instance's open redirect endpoint through an external redirect to reach internal services. This vulnerability affected all versions of GitHub Enterprise Server prior to 3.21 and was fixed in versions 3.14.26, 3.15.21, 3.16.17, 3.17.14, 3.18.8, 3.19.5, and 3.20.1. This vulnerability was reported via the GitHub Bug Bounty program.
Title Server-Side Request Forgery in GitHub Enterprise Server allowed extraction of sensitive environment variables via timing side-channel attack
Weaknesses CWE-918
References
Metrics cvssV4_0

{'score': 8.9, 'vector': 'CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:H/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:L/SC:H/SI:H/SA:L/E:P'}

Weaknesses

Sources

Status
PUBLISHED
Assigner
GitHub_P
Published
Updated
Apr 22, 2026, 1:18 PM
Reserved
Apr 8, 2026, 8:59 PM
Status
Analyzed
Published
Apr 21, 2026, 11:16 PM
Modified
Oct 26, 2026, 10:10 PM