CVE-2022-39253 | Git subject to exposure of sensitive information via local clone of symbolic links

Git is an open source, scalable, distributed revision control system. Versions prior to 2.30.6, 2.31.5, 2.32.4, 2.33.5, 2.34.5, 2.35.5, 2.36.3, and 2.37.4 are subject to exposure of sensitive information to a malicious actor. When performing a local clone (where the source and target of the clone are on the same volume), Git copies the contents of the source's `$GIT_DIR/objects` directory into the destination by either creating hardlinks to the source contents, or copying them (if hardlinks are disabled via `--no-hardlinks`). A malicious actor could convince a victim to clone a repository with a symbolic link pointing at sensitive information on the victim's machine. This can be done either by having the victim clone a malicious repository on the same machine, or having them clone a malicious repository embedded as a bare repository via a submodule from any source, provided they clone with the `--recurse-submodules` option. Git does not create symbolic links in the `$GIT_DIR/objects` directory. The problem has been patched in the versions published on 2022-10-18, and backported to v2.30.x. Potential workarounds: Avoid cloning untrusted repositories using the `--local` optimization when on a shared machine, either by passing the `--no-local` option to `git clone` or cloning from a URL that uses the `file://` scheme. Alternatively, avoid cloning repositories from untrusted sources with `--recurse-submodules` or run `git config --global protocol.file.allow user`.

Published: 2022-10-19 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2022-39253 is rated Moderate Risk (51.7/100): CVSS Medium severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 2.58%). Mandatory action: Review affected assets and schedule remediation.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2022-39253

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-04-19 2.79% 2.58% -0.21%
2 2026-03-04 2.48% 2.79% +0.32%
3 2026-03-01 2.48%

Full EPSS history (51 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2022-39253

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
1.8 3.6 [email protected]
5.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
1.8 3.6 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2022-39253

OS Trackers for CVE-2022-39253

vendor priority summary link
alpine CVE-2022-39253: 3 source package rows (docker, docker-cli-compose, git); 67 state rows across 14 repos (3.17-community, 3.17-main, 3.18-community, 3.18-main, 3.19-community, 3.19-main, 3.20-community, 3.20-main, 3.21-community, 3.21-main, 3.22-community, 3.22-main, edge-community, edge-main); fixed 21, open 46. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2022-39253
debian not yet assigned CVE-2022-39253 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (git), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2022-39253
gentoo high CVE-2022-39253: 1 GLSA(s) (202312-15), 1 atom(s) (dev-vcs/git); latest impact high. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2022-39253
redhat medium https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2022-39253
suse medium CVE-2022-39253 severity moderate: SUSE including 157 source package names (1.16-30.77:git-core-2.35.3-150300.10.18.1, 1.17-29.77:git-core-2.35.3-150300.10.18.1, …), 402 product×package rows across 65 product lines (Container bci/golang, Container bci/nodejs, … (65 product lines)): Fixed 326, Known Not Affected 76. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2022-39253/
ubuntu medium CVE-2022-39253 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (git), 8 status rows across 8 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, kinetic, lunar, trusty, upstream, xenial): released 6, ignored 1, needs-triage 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2022-39253

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2022-39253

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
git-scm git < 2.30.6 cpe:2.3:a:git-scm:git:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
git-scm git >= 2.31.0, < 2.31.5 cpe:2.3:a:git-scm:git:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
git-scm git >= 2.32.0, < 2.32.4 cpe:2.3:a:git-scm:git:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
git-scm git >= 2.33.0, < 2.33.5 cpe:2.3:a:git-scm:git:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
git-scm git >= 2.34.0, < 2.34.5 cpe:2.3:a:git-scm:git:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
git-scm git >= 2.35.0, < 2.35.5 cpe:2.3:a:git-scm:git:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
git-scm git >= 2.36.0, < 2.36.3 cpe:2.3:a:git-scm:git:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
git-scm git >= 2.37.0, < 2.37.4 cpe:2.3:a:git-scm:git:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
git-scm git 2.38.0 cpe:2.3:a:git-scm:git:2.38.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 35 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:35:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 36 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:36:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 37 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:37:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
apple xcode < 14.1 cpe:2.3:a:apple:xcode:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 10.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:10.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2022-39253

URL Tags
http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2022/Nov/1 Mailing List Third Party Advisory
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/02/14/5 Mailing List Third Party Advisory
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2024/05/14/2
https://github.com/git/git/security/advisories/GHSA-3wp6-j8xr-qw85 Mitigation Third Party Advisory
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2022/12/msg00025.html Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/C7B6JPKX5CGGLAHXJVQMIZNNEEB72FHD/
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/JMQWGMDLX6KTVWW5JZLVPI7ICAK72TN7/
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/OHNO2FB55CPX47BAXMBWUBGWHO6N6ZZH/
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/UKFHE4KVD7EKS5J3KTDFVBEKU3CLXGVV/
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/VFYXCTLOSESYIP72BUYD6ECDIMUM4WMB/
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202312-15
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT213496 Third Party Advisory
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