Integer overflow in Git

CVE-2022-23521

Git is distributed revision control system. gitattributes are a mechanism to allow defining attributes for paths. These attributes can be defined by adding a `.gitattributes` file to the repository, which contains a set of file patterns and the attributes that should be set for paths matching this pattern. When parsing gitattributes, multiple integer overflows can occur when there is a huge number of path patterns, a huge number of attributes for a single pattern, or when the declared attribute names are huge. These overflows can be triggered via a crafted `.gitattributes` file that may be part of the commit history. Git silently splits lines longer than 2KB when parsing gitattributes from a file, but not when parsing them from the index. Consequentially, the failure mode depends on whether the file exists in the working tree, the index or both. This integer overflow can result in arbitrary heap reads and writes, which may result in remote code execution. The problem has been patched in the versions published on 2023-01-17, going back to v2.30.7. Users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this issue.

Vulnerability class: Integer Overflow

EPSS: 0.563 (99.0th percentile) — read the EPSS interpretation.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 9.8 (Critical). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

Affected products

  • Git — versions < 2.30.7, >= 2.31.0, < 2.31.6, >= 2.32.0, < 2.32.5
  • Git-scm Git — versions 2.39.0

Weakness classification (CWE)

Public proof-of-concept exploits

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2022-23521?
CVE-2022-23521 is a critical-severity vulnerability in Git, classified under Integer Overflow or Wraparound. CVSS score: 9.8/10. Published 2023-01-17.
How severe is CVE-2022-23521?
Critical severity. CVSS v3 base score is 9.8 out of 10.
Is CVE-2022-23521 known to be exploited?
18 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.