Vulnerability in Gitoxidelabs Gitoxide
CVE-2026-44471
gitoxide is an implementation of git written in Rust. Prior to 0.21.1, a malicious tree can be constructed that will, when checked out with gitoxide, permit writing an attacker-controlled symlink into any existing directory the user has write access to. During checkout, all symlink index entries are deferred and created after regular files using a single shared gix_worktree::Stack. Internally, this uses a gix_fs::Stack. gix_fs::Stack::make_relative_path_current() caches validated path prefixes: when the previously-processed leaf component exactly matches the leading component(s) of the next path, the leaf-to-directory transition at gix-fs/src/stack.rs invokes only delegate.push_directory(), never delegate.push(). In gix_worktree::stack::delegate::StackDelegate, when the state member is State::CreateDirectoryAndAttributesStack, Attributes::push_directory() only loads attributes (from the ODB, in the clone case), and does not perform any other checks. The on-disk symlink_metadata() check and unlink-on-collision live in StackDelegate::push()'s invocation of create_leading_directory(), which is therefore bypassed for the cached prefix. The final symlink is created with plain std::os::unix::fs::symlink, which follows symlinks in parent directories. Therefore, it's possible to provide a tree with duplicate symlink and directory entries that exploits this. This vulnerability is fixed in 0.21.1.
EPSS: 0.002 (16.0th percentile) — read the EPSS interpretation.
CVSS v3 metric
CVSS v3 base score 7.8 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.
Affected products
- Gitoxidelabs Gitoxide — versions < 0.21.1
- Gitoxidelabs Gix-fs
Weakness classification (CWE)
References
- security-advisories@github.com (x_refsource_CONFIRM, Exploit, Vendor Advisory)
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2026-44471?
- CVE-2026-44471 is a high-severity vulnerability in Gitoxidelabs Gitoxide, classified under Improper Link Resolution Before File Access. CVSS score: 7.8/10. Published 2026-05-13.
- How severe is CVE-2026-44471?
- High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.8 out of 10.