CVE-2023-40590: Untrusted search path on Windows systems leading to arbitrary code execution
First published: Mon Aug 28 2023(Updated: )
GitPython is a python library used to interact with Git repositories. When resolving a program, Python/Windows look for the current working directory, and after that the PATH environment. GitPython defaults to use the `git` command, if a user runs GitPython from a repo has a `git.exe` or `git` executable, that program will be run instead of the one in the user's `PATH`. This is more of a problem on how Python interacts with Windows systems, Linux and any other OS aren't affected by this. But probably people using GitPython usually run it from the CWD of a repo. An attacker can trick a user to download a repository with a malicious `git` executable, if the user runs/imports GitPython from that directory, it allows the attacker to run any arbitrary commands. There is no fix currently available for windows users, however there are a few mitigations. 1: Default to an absolute path for the git program on Windows, like `C:\\Program Files\\Git\\cmd\\git.EXE` (default git path installation). 2: Require users to set the `GIT_PYTHON_GIT_EXECUTABLE` environment variable on Windows systems. 3: Make this problem prominent in the documentation and advise users to never run GitPython from an untrusted repo, or set the `GIT_PYTHON_GIT_EXECUTABLE` env var to an absolute path. 4: Resolve the executable manually by only looking into the `PATH` environment variable.
Credit: security-advisories@github.com security-advisories@github.com security-advisories@github.com
| Affected Software | Affected Version | How to fix |
|---|---|---|
| pip/gitpython | <=3.1.32 | 3.1.33 |
| Gitpython Project Gitpython Python | <=3.1.32 | |
| <=3.1.32 |
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Reference Links
- https://github.com/gitpython-developers/GitPython/security/advisories/GHSA-wfm5-v35h-vwf4
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-40590
- https://docs.python.org/3/library/subprocess.html#popen-constructor
- https://github.com/gitpython-developers/GitPython/issues/1635
- https://github.com/gitpython-developers/GitPython/pull/1636
- https://github.com/gitpython-developers/GitPython/commit/8b75434e2c8a082cdeb4971cc6f0ee2bafec45bc
- https://github.com/gitpython-developers/GitPython/releases/tag/3.1.33
- https://github.com/pypa/advisory-database/tree/main/vulns/gitpython/PYSEC-2023-161.yaml
- https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-wfm5-v35h-vwf4 (Advisory)
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