CVE-2023-40590
HighCVSS 7.8Exploitation Probability (EPSS)
Low risk37th percentile - higher than 37% of all known CVEs
Summary
CVE-2023-40590 affects the GitPython library, which can execute a malicious `git` program from a local repository if the user runs GitPython from that directory. This issue primarily occurs on Windows systems where Python improperly resolves paths to executables.
Risk Assessment
An attacker can trick a user into downloading a repository with a malicious `git` file, allowing arbitrary command execution. The lack of current fixes for Windows users increases the risk.
Recommendation
It is recommended to set an absolute path for the `git` program on Windows systems and to inform users to avoid running GitPython from untrusted repositories.
Other vulnerabilities in GitPython
See all- CVE-2026-44244High
GitPython is a Python library used to interact with Git repositories. In versions prior to 3.1.49, the GitConfigParser.set_value() method did not validate values for newlines, allowing for the injection of malicious paths into Git configuration.
- CVE-2026-44243High
GitPython is a Python library used to interact with Git repositories. Prior to version 3.1.48, a vulnerability allowed attackers to manipulate files outside the repository's .git directory due to insufficient validation of reference paths.
- CVE-2026-42284High
GitPython is a Python library used to interact with Git repositories. In versions prior to 3.1.47, the _clone() function improperly validates multi_options, allowing malicious hooks to be executed during repository cloning.
- CVE-2026-42215High
GitPython is a Python library used to interact with Git repositories. From version 3.1.30 to before version 3.1.47, the library blocks dangerous Git options, but equivalent Python kwargs can bypass that check, leading to arbitrary command execution.
- CVE-2026-78676Critical
GitPython before 3.1.59 fails to safely re-serialize multi-line git-config values during write operations, potentially turning dormant quoted values into active directives like core.hooksPath. Attackers can craft config files with embedded newlines that become live after any GitPython config write, enabling arbitrary code execution.
- CVE-2026-67324Critical
GitPython 3.1.50 fails to recognize joined short-option forms such as -u<value> (the short form of --upload-pack=<value>) when enforcing its default unsafe-option gate. When an application passes attacker-influenced clone options into Repo.clone_from(..., multi_options=..., allow_unsafe_options=False), an attacker can supply -u<helper> to bypass the gate that blocks --upload-pack/-u, causing Git to execute the specified helper command during clone. Fixed in 3.1.51.
- CVE-2023-40267Critical
GitPython before 3.1.32 does not block insecure non-multi options in clone and clone_from. This issue exists because of an incomplete fix for CVE-2022-24439.
- CVE-2026-100689Medium
GitPython before 3.1.62 does not validate the path field read from an untrusted .gitmodules file when updating submodules. While a prior fix (GHSA-hmq2-w58f-27jc) added Submodule._validated_name() to constrain the name field, and GitPython's own containment guard Submodule._to_relative_path() is applied in add() and move(), Submodule.update() derives the absolute checkout location from the raw path value without that guard. A .gitmodules entry containing directory traversal components (e.g., path = ../../../tmp/escaped) can cause directories to be created via os.makedirs() outside the repository working tree, populated from the submodule URL, and removed via shutil.rmtree() when force_remove is used. Fixed in GitPython 3.1.62.
- CVE-2026-87819High
GitPython before 3.1.60 contains a regular expression denial of service vulnerability in Actor.name_email_regex that processes commit author and committer fields. Attackers can craft a commit object with a malformed author field containing an unterminated angle bracket to cause quadratic backtracking, exhausting CPU resources for over two minutes per commit access.
- CVE-2026-87818Medium
GitPython 3.1.59 fails to restrict the --no-index option in the high-level diff API, allowing attackers to read arbitrary filesystem paths as repository operands. Attackers can combine --no-index with -I/--ignore-matching-lines to create a content-dependent Boolean oracle, repeatedly querying local files to recover single-line secrets through distinguishable success or error responses.
Original NVD description (English source)
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.
Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS