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OpenAdvisories
High · 8.8 CVE-2026-5917 EUVD-2026-57011GHSA-3gwr-xcwq-7892

libgit2 Shell Command Injection via ssh_libssh2 Backend

Published Aug 11, 2026 · Updated Oct 1, 2026 · Assigned by VulnCheck

Description

libgit2 versions before 1.8.7 and 1.9.0 before 1.9.7 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.

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
libgit2 libgit2 < 1.8.7, 1.9.0 – < 1.9.7 1.8.7

Fixed in Linux distributions

Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian 14 libgit2 1.9.7+ds-1 —
Debian 13 libgit2 1.9.0+ds-2+deb13u1 —
Debian 12 libgit2 1.5.1+ds-1+deb12u2 —
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS libgit2 1.9.1+ds-1ubuntu1.2 USN-8809-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS libgit2 1.7.2+ds-1ubuntu3.2 USN-8809-1
Show 4 more (older releases, extended support, other products)
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu Pro 22.04 LTS libgit2 1.1.0+dfsg.1-4.1ubuntu0.1+esm2 USN-8809-1
Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS libgit2 0.28.4+dfsg.1-2ubuntu0.1+esm2 USN-8809-1
Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS libgit2 0.26.0+dfsg.1-1.1ubuntu0.2+esm3 USN-8809-1
Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS libgit2 0.24.1-2ubuntu0.2+esm4 USN-8809-1
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
openSUSE Tumbleweed libgit2 1.9.7-1.1 openSUSE-SU-2026:11521-1
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Alpine v3.24 libgit2 1.9.7-r0 —
Alpine v3.23 libgit2 1.9.7-r0 —

Amazon Linux

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Amazon Linux 2023 cargo-c 0.10.21-1.amzn2023.0.2 ALAS2023-2026-2113
Amazon Linux 2023 libgit2 +1 1.6.4-116.amzn2023 ALAS2023-2026-2083

Advisories 4

References