VULNpocalypse

CVE-2020-5260: malicious URLs may cause Git to present stored credentials to the wrong server

Advisory generated from the CVE record, CISA, Exploit Observer and VEDAS: what it is, whether it is exploited, who is affected, and how to fix and detect it.

Generated by VEDAS. Scores as of 2026-11-04 15:41 UTC. Rebuilt every few hours from cve-scores, CISA KEV and vedas-signatures. How this works and its limits.

What it is

Affected versions of Git have a vulnerability whereby Git can be tricked into sending private credentials to a host controlled by an attacker. Git uses external “credential helper” programs to store and retrieve passwords or other credentials from secure storage provided by the operating system. Specially-crafted URLs that contain an encoded newline can inject unintended values into the credential helper protocol stream, causing the credential helper to retrieve the password for one server (e.g., good.example.com) for an HTTP request being made to another server (e.g., evil.example.com), resulting in credentials for the former being sent to the latter. There are no restrictions on the relationship between the two, meaning that an attacker can craft a URL that will present stored credentials for any host to a host of their choosing. The vulnerability can be triggered by feeding a malicious URL to git clone. However, the affected URLs look rather suspicious; the likely vector would be through systems which automatically clone URLs not visible to the user, such as Git submodules, or package systems built around Git. The problem has been patched in the versions published on April 14th, 2020, going back to v2.17.x. Anyone wishing to backport the change further can do so by applying commit 9a6bbee (the full release includes extra checks for git fsck, but that commit is sufficient to protect clients against the vulnerability). The patched versions are: 2.17.4, 2.18.3, 2.19.4, 2.20.3, 2.21.2, 2.22.3, 2.23.2, 2.24.2, 2.25.3, 2.26.1.

Description quoted from the CVE record (assigned by GitHub_M, published 2020-04-14).

Weakness: CWE-20: Improper Input Validation

How it can be exploited

Exploitable over the network with low attack complexity needing no privileges and a user must take an action. Impact: confidentiality high, integrity high, availability none. CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N

Public exploit evidence (Exploit Observer)

Exploit Observer found 3 code repositories and 1 research write-up naming this CVE.

Code repositories that name a CVE are often scanners, copies or fakes, and some are malware. Read the code before running anything.

See all 20 references on Exploit Observer

Live scores

EPSS
0.149
likely to be attacked soon
VEDAS
0.895
likely exploited
On CISA KEV
Not listed
Detection rule
No public rule yet

Who is affected

ProductAffectedNot affected
gitversion < 2.17.4
version >= 2.18.0, < 2.18.3
version >= 2.19.0, 2.19.4
version >= 2.20.0, < 2.20.3
version >= 2.21.0, < 2.21.2
version >= 2.22.0, < 2.22.3
version >= 2.23.0, < 2.23.2
version >= 2.24.0, < 2.24.2
and 2 more ranges		Not stated

Version ranges exactly as the CVE record states them. “Before X” means X is the first fixed version.

How to fix it

Vendor guidance:

2 more

How to detect it

There is no open VEDAS detection rule for this bug yet. It is listed on the detection gaps page if CISA has confirmed attacks.

References

Vendor advisories and patches

Other references

Other databases

Where this comes from

This advisory is generated automatically by VEDAS from: CVE.org record, cve-scores (EPSS and VEDAS), Exploit Observer. Text in quotes is reproduced from the source; everything else is a fixed template filled with source fields. Nothing here is written by a language model. Check the vendor advisory before acting, and read how VEDAS and Exploit Observer work, and their limits.

Supporting partners

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