CVE-2026-76222

Ein Angreifer kann mehrere Schwachstellen in Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform ausnutzen, um seine Privilegien zu erhöhen, beliebigen Code auszuführen, Sicherheitsmaßnahmen zu umgehen, Daten zu manipulieren oder offenzulegen und einen Denial-of-Service-Zustand herbeizuführen.

### Summary GitPython computes the on-disk location of a submodule's separate Git directory (`.git/modules/<name>`) from the submodule's `.gitmodules` section name with no validation. Because that name is fully attacker-controlled content of a cloned repository, a malicious repository can set a submodule name to a traversal string (e.g. `../../../../home/victim/.something`) and cause GitPython to create and initialize a full Git repository at an attacker-chosen filesystem path outside the intended clone directory. The only precondition is that a victim clones the malicious repository with GitPython and runs submodule initialization (`submodule_update(init=True)` / `sm.update(init=True)`), a very common and often automatic step. Core Git itself already blocks this exact attack class (CVE-2018-11235), but GitPython's independent reimplementation never adopted an equivalent check. ### Details `src/GitPython/git/objects/submodule/util.py` `sm_name()` strips the `submodule "` / `"` wrapper from a `.gitmodules` `[submodule "..."]` header and returns the result unchecked. `Submodule.iter_items()` in `src/GitPython/git/objects/submodule/base.py` reads this via `sm_name(sms)` and assigns it to `sm._name`; unlike the submodule `path`, `name` is never used for a tree lookup, so it is never implicitly validated. `Submodule._module_abspath()` then builds `osp.join(parent_repo.git_dir, "modules", name)` - `os.path.join` does not normalize `../` sequences. `Submodule._clone_repo()` passes this value straight to `os.makedirs()` and to `git clone --separate-git-dir=<module_abspath>`, creating and populating a full Git repository (objects, refs, hooks, config) at the escaped path. Attack prerequisite: attacker controls a repository the victim clones and initializes submodules for. ### PoC 1. Environment: Docker image built `FROM python:3.11-slim`, with `git` installed via `apt-get install -y git` (Debian bookworm packaged version, described in the advisory as "git 2.x"; the host-side verification separately used system git `2.34.1`, but no exact version is pinned for the git binary inside this Docker image). GitPython is installed inside the container via `pip install /src/GitPython` from this repository's own source, which the advisory states resolved to the officially released `GitPython==3.1.57` and `gitdb==4.0.12`. 2. Configuration / preconditions: None beyond what's described - the victim must clone the attacker's repository with GitPython and run submodule initialization (`repo.submodules` + `sm.update(init=True)`, equivalent to `git submodule update --init`). 3. Commands run (quoted verbatim from the advisory's "Confirmed test run" section): ```bash $ docker build -f GHSA/testing/Dockerfile -t ghsa-gitpython-poc . $ docker run --rm ghsa-gitpython-poc ``` (Per the Dockerfile, `docker run` executes `/work/run_all.sh`, which in turn runs `build_attacker_repo.sh`, then `poc_gitpython.py`, then `poc_control_realgit.sh`.) 4. Full source of the PoC script (`GHSA/testing/poc_gitpython.py`), verbatim: ```python """GHSA-001 PoC: GitPython side. Clones the attacker repo and runs the equivalent of `git submodule update --init` via GitPython, then checks whether a git repository was created outside the clone directory. """ import os import shutil import git CLONE_DIR = '/work/victim_clone/repo' ESCAPE_TARGET = '/tmp/gitpython_poc_escaped_root' def main(): shutil.rmtree(os.path.dirname(CLONE_DIR), ignore_errors=True) shutil.rmtree(ESCAPE_TARGET, ignore_errors=True) os.makedirs(os.path.dirname(CLONE_DIR), exist_ok=True) print(f'GitPython version: {git.__version__}') repo = git.Repo.clone_from('/work/attacker_repo', CLONE_DIR) print('Cloned into:', repo.working_tree_dir) sms = list(repo.submodules) for sm in sms: print(' submodule name:', repr(sm.name)) print(' submodule path:', repr(sm.path)) print('escape_target exists before update:', os.path.exists(ESCAPE_TARGET)) for sm in sms: try: sm.update(init=True) except Exception as e: print('sm.update raised:', repr(e)) exists = os.path.exists(ESCAPE_TARGET) print('escape_target exists after update:', exists) if exists: print('escape_target contents:', os.listdir(ESCAPE_TARGET)) print('POC_RESULT=VULNERABLE' if exists else 'POC_RESULT=SAFE') if __name__ == '__main__': main() ``` 5. Exact captured terminal output (verbatim, from the original advisory's "Confirmed test run (Docker, released package)" section): ``` === GitPython PoC (vulnerable path) === GitPython version: 3.1.57 Cloned into: /work/victim_clone/repo submodule name: '../../../../../../tmp/gitpython_poc_escaped_root/modules_dir' submodule path: 'legit_dir' escape_target exists before update: False escape_target exists after update: True escape_target contents: ['modules_dir'] POC_RESULT=VULNERABLE === Control: real git CLI on identical repo === warning: ignoring suspicious submodule name: ../../../../../../tmp/gitpython_poc_escaped_root/modules_dir warning: ignoring suspicious submodule name: ../../../../../../tmp/gitpython_poc_escaped_root/modules_dir fatal: No url found for submodule path 'legit_dir' in .gitmodules CONTROL_RESULT=SAFE (real git correctly refused) ``` 6. Payload: the attacker rewrites the `.gitmodules` section header from `[submodule "legit_dir"]` to `[submodule "../../../../../../tmp/gitpython_poc_escaped_root/modules_dir"]` (built by `build_attacker_repo.sh`, part of the harness in `GHSA/testing/`). The malicious part is the `../../../../../../` traversal sequence embedded in the submodule *name* (not the tree-validated `path`), which becomes the on-disk target for the submodule's separate git directory. 7. Expected vs. observed: A safe implementation (as demonstrated by the real `git` CLI control run) rejects the submodule name with "ignoring suspicious submodule name" and refuses to create anything outside the repository. GitPython instead created the escape-target directory and a fully-initialized Git repository at `/tmp/gitpython_poc_escaped_root/modules_dir`, confirmed by `escape_target exists after update: True` and its listed contents. 8. Security impact demonstrated: arbitrary filesystem directory and Git-repository creation at an attacker-chosen absolute path outside the victim's intended clone directory, populated with attacker-controlled content sourced from the submodule's own (also attacker-controlled) `url`. ### Impact Path traversal (CWE-22) / external control of file path (CWE-73) leading to arbitrary directory and Git-repository creation outside the intended clone directory. Integrity impact is High (attacker chooses destination path and, via the submodule URL, much of the written content); Confidentiality impact is None (only creation was demonstrated); Availability impact is Low-Medium (disk-exhaustion potential). No authentication is required; the attacker only needs to control a repository the victim clones and initializes submodules for - a routine, often fully-automatic operation in CI pipelines, IDE integrations, and dependency-management tooling.

GitPython before 3.1.58 fails to validate submodule names from .gitmodules files, allowing attackers to create Git repositories at arbitrary filesystem paths outside the intended clone directory. Attackers can craft malicious repositories with traversal sequences in submodule names that GitPython processes during submodule initialization, creating attacker-controlled Git repositories at escaped filesystem locations.