CVE-2020-5260

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.

At a glance

Exploitability

Can be exploited over the network without logging in, but needs a user to act. High risk of data exposure, data tampering.

Exploit odds

14.9% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days (EPSS). Higher than most.

Fix

A patch, advisory or fixed version is referenced. Upgrade or apply it.

Timeline

1. 2020-04-14 23:15 UTC PublishedDisclosed publicly on CVE.org and NVD
2. 2026-06-17 03:21 UTC Last updatedMost recent change to the record

Why it ranks here

• Exploited in the wild: no, CISA does not list it.
• Exploit odds: 14.9% in the next 30 days (EPSS).
• Severity: 9.3 CRITICAL (CVSS).
• Fix: a patch or advisory is linked.

Details

Published

2020-04-14 23:15 UTC

Last modified

2026-06-17 03:21 UTC

Exploit probability

14.9% · EPSS, next 30 days

Weakness

CWE-20 · Improper input validation

Record status

Modified

Affected

• Git < 2.17.4
• Git < 2.22.3
• git-scm Git < 2.18.3
• git-scm Git < 2.19.4
• git-scm Git < 2.20.3
• git-scm Git < 2.21.2
• git-scm Git < 2.23.2
• git-scm Git < 2.24.2

Attack profile CVSS 3.1 · 9.3

Attack vector

Network

Complexity

Low

Privileges needed

None

User interaction

Required

Scope

Changed

Confidentiality

High

Integrity

High

Availability

None

Is it in your code?

Hand this to your coding agent. It searches your project for the affected products and checks versions. Nothing leaves your machine.

Read https://cve-list.com/agent/cve/CVE-2020-5260.md and follow it. Check whether this project is affected by CVE-2020-5260. Read only. Don't change anything and don't upload my code. Tell me yes, no or not sure, with the file as proof.

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