CVE-2026-42305 | Dulwich has an arbitrary file write via NTFS-hostile tree entries on Windows

Dulwich is a pure-Python implementation of the Git file formats and protocols. Versions starting with 0.10.0 and prior to 1.2.5 have an arbitrary file write leading to remote code execution when cloning or checking out a malicious Git repository on Windows. Dulwich's path-element validator accepted tree entries whose filenames contained bytes that Windows interprets as structural path syntax. Contributing configuration bugs made matters worse. The core.protectNTFS and core.protectHFS settings were looked up under a wrong option name and so user-set values were silently ignored, and core.protectNTFS only defaulted to true on Windows (Git upstream has defaulted it to true everywhere since CVE-2019-1353). Both have been corrected. Anyone who clones, fetches, or checks out an untrusted repository with Dulwich on Windows - either through the Dulwich CLI, porcelain.clone, or any downstream tool built on Dulwich - is impacted. POSIX clones are not directly exploitable (on POSIX \ is a literal filename byte), but a POSIX user can unknowingly propagate a malicious tree to Windows consumers via push or re-publication. This issue is fixed in Dulwich 1.2.5. Users should upgrade to 1.2.5 or later. There is no effective pre-patch workaround. On affected versions the core.protectNTFS configuration key was silently ignored, so setting it to true does not mitigate the issue. Users who cannot upgrade should avoid cloning, fetching, or checking out untrusted repositories with Dulwich on Windows. After upgrading the NTFS validator is on by default on every platform, so no additional configuration is required.

Published: 2026-06-10 Last update: 2026-06-11 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2026-42305 is rated Moderate Risk (54.5/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.85%). 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-2026-42305

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 2026-06-15 0.22% 0.85% +0.63%
2 2026-06-11 0.22%

Full EPSS history (2 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2026-42305

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
8.8 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
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:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
2.8 5.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2026-42305

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2026-42305

GHSA-897w-fcg9-f6xj · Severity: high · Ecosystem: pip — Dulwich has an arbitrary file write via NTFS-hostile tree entries on Windows

OS Trackers for CVE-2026-42305

vendor priority summary link
debian unimportant CVE-2026-42305 unimportant priority: Debian including 1 source packages (dulwich), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2026-42305
suse medium CVE-2026-42305 severity moderate: SUSE including 3 source package names (python311-dulwich-1.2.5-1.1, python313-dulwich-1.2.5-1.1, python314-dulwich-1.2.5-1.1), 3 product×package rows across 1 product lines (openSUSE Tumbleweed): Fixed 3. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-42305/
ubuntu medium CVE-2026-42305 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (dulwich), 7 status rows across 7 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, questing, resolute, upstream): needs-triage 6, released 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2026-42305

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2026-42305

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
No affected products in dataset.

References for CVE-2026-42305

cvelogic Threat Intelligence