CVE Vulnerabilities

CVE-2022-24765

Uncontrolled Search Path Element

Published: Apr 12, 2022 | Modified: Dec 27, 2023
CVSS 3.x
7.8
HIGH
Source:
NVD
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CVSS 2.x
6.9 MEDIUM
AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C
RedHat/V2
RedHat/V3
Ubuntu

Git for Windows is a fork of Git containing Windows-specific patches. This vulnerability affects users working on multi-user machines, where untrusted parties have write access to the same hard disk. Those untrusted parties could create the folder C:.git, which would be picked up by Git operations run supposedly outside a repository while searching for a Git directory. Git would then respect any config in said Git directory. Git Bash users who set GIT_PS1_SHOWDIRTYSTATE are vulnerable as well. Users who installed posh-gitare vulnerable simply by starting a PowerShell. Users of IDEs such as Visual Studio are vulnerable: simply creating a new project would already read and respect the config specified in C:.gitconfig. Users of the Microsoft fork of Git are vulnerable simply by starting a Git Bash. The problem has been patched in Git for Windows v2.35.2. Users unable to upgrade may create the folder .git on all drives where Git commands are run, and remove read/write access from those folders as a workaround. Alternatively, define or extend GIT_CEILING_DIRECTORIES to cover the parent directory of the user profile, e.g. C:Users if the user profile is located in C:Usersmy-user-name.

Weakness

The product uses a fixed or controlled search path to find resources, but one or more locations in that path can be under the control of unintended actors.

Affected Software

Name Vendor Start Version End Version
Windows Microsoft - -

Extended Description

Although this weakness can occur with any type of resource, it is frequently introduced when a product uses a directory search path to find executables or code libraries, but the path contains a directory that can be modified by an attacker, such as “/tmp” or the current working directory. In Windows-based systems, when the LoadLibrary or LoadLibraryEx function is called with a DLL name that does not contain a fully qualified path, the function follows a search order that includes two path elements that might be uncontrolled:

In some cases, the attack can be conducted remotely, such as when SMB or WebDAV network shares are used. One or more locations in that path could include the Windows drive root or its subdirectories. This often exists in Linux-based code assuming the controlled nature of the root directory (/) or its subdirectories (/etc, etc), or a code that recursively accesses the parent directory. In Windows, the drive root and some of its subdirectories have weak permissions by default, which makes them uncontrolled. In some Unix-based systems, a PATH might be created that contains an empty element, e.g. by splicing an empty variable into the PATH. This empty element can be interpreted as equivalent to the current working directory, which might be an untrusted search element. In software package management frameworks (e.g., npm, RubyGems, or PyPi), the framework may identify dependencies on third-party libraries or other packages, then consult a repository that contains the desired package. The framework may search a public repository before a private repository. This could be exploited by attackers by placing a malicious package in the public repository that has the same name as a package from the private repository. The search path might not be directly under control of the developer relying on the framework, but this search order effectively contains an untrusted element.

Potential Mitigations

References