CVE-2024-50338
Vulnerability Scoring
Highly exploitable, CVE-2024-50338 poses a critical security risk that could lead to severe breaches.
Highly exploitable, CVE-2024-50338 poses a critical security risk that could lead to severe breaches.
Status: Received on 14 Jan 2025, 19:15 UTC
Published on: 14 Jan 2025, 19:15 UTC
CVSS Release: version 3
security-advisories@github.com
Secondary
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N
CVE-2024-50338: Git Credential Manager (GCM) is a secure Git credential helper built on .NET that runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux. The Git credential protocol is text-based over standard input/output, and consists of a series of lines of key-value pairs in the format `key=value`. Git's documentation restricts the use of the NUL (`\0`) character and newlines to form part of the keys or values. When Git reads from standard input, it considers both LF and CRLF as newline characters for the credential protocol by virtue of calling `strbuf_getline` that calls to `strbuf_getdelim_strip_crlf`. Git also validates that a newline is not present in the value by checking for the presence of the line-feed character (LF, `\n`), and errors if this is the case. This captures both LF and CRLF-type newlines. Git Credential Manager uses the .NET standard library `StreamReader` class to read the standard input stream line-by-line and parse the `key=value` credential protocol format. The implementation of the `ReadLineAsync` method considers LF, CRLF, and CR as valid line endings. This is means that .NET considers a single CR as a valid newline character, whereas Git does not. This mismatch of newline treatment between Git and GCM means that an attacker can craft a malicious remote URL. When a user clones or otherwise interacts with a malicious repository that requires authentication, the attacker can capture credentials for another Git remote. The attack is also heightened when cloning from repositories with submodules when using the `--recursive` clone option as the user is not able to inspect the submodule remote URLs beforehand. This issue has been patched in version 2.6.1 and all users are advised to upgrade. Users unable to upgrade should only interact with trusted remote repositories, and not clone with `--recursive` to allow inspection of any submodule URLs before cloning those submodules.
The exploitability of CVE-2024-50338 depends on two key factors: attack complexity (the level of effort required to execute an exploit) and privileges required (the access level an attacker needs).
With low attack complexity and no required privileges, CVE-2024-50338 is an easy target for cybercriminals. Organizations should prioritize immediate mitigation measures to prevent unauthorized access and data breaches.
A lower complexity and fewer privilege requirements make exploitation easier. Security teams should evaluate these aspects to determine the urgency of mitigation strategies, such as patch management and access control policies.
Attack Complexity (AC) measures the difficulty in executing an exploit. A high AC means that specific conditions must be met, making an attack more challenging, while a low AC means the vulnerability can be exploited with minimal effort.
Privileges Required (PR) determine the level of system access necessary for an attack. Vulnerabilities requiring no privileges are more accessible to attackers, whereas high privilege requirements limit exploitation to authorized users with elevated access.
Above is the CVSS Sub-score Breakdown for CVE-2024-50338, illustrating how Base, Impact, and Exploitability factors combine to form the overall severity rating. A higher sub-score typically indicates a more severe or easier-to-exploit vulnerability.
Below is the Impact Analysis for CVE-2024-50338, showing how Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability might be affected if the vulnerability is exploited. Higher values usually signal greater potential damage.
The EPSS score estimates the probability that this vulnerability will be exploited in the near future.
EPSS Score: 0.044% (probability of exploit)
EPSS Percentile: 15.85%
(lower percentile = lower relative risk)
This vulnerability is less risky than approximately 84.15% of others.
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