CVE-2026-5917
NVD analysis in progress
libgit2 versions v0.27.0 through v1.9.0 built with the libssh2 SSH backend (USE_SSH=libssh2) contain a shell command injection vulnerability that allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary commands on an SSH server by supplying a repository path containing unescaped shell metacharacters such as single quotes, semicolons, or pipes. The gen_proto() function in ssh_libssh2.c inserts the repository path directly into a shell command string without escaping special characters before passing it to libssh2_channel_exec(), enabling an attacker to craft a malicious submodule URL in a .gitmodules file that, when processed during a recursive clone, causes the remote server's shell to interpret injected commands under the victim's SSH user account.
What this means
- Exposure
- Exploitable remotely over the network and without authentication — but only if a user opens booby-trapped content.
- Impact
- An attacker can read sensitive data, modify or destroy data and take the service offline. The impact spreads beyond the vulnerable component into other parts of the system.
- Weakness
- Unfiltered input reaches the system shell, letting the attacker run their own commands on the server.
- Likelihood
- Its EPSS score stays low: nothing points to imminent exploitation, which is no reason to leave it unpatched.
What to doPatch without waiting for the next scheduled cycle.
Read automatically from the CVSS vector, the weakness type (CWE) and the EPSS score. The technical description above remains the one published by NIST.