CVE-2026-82249 in Gitoxide
Summary
by MITRE • 08/28/2026
gitoxide before 0.38.2 fails to validate carriage return characters in URL values passed to credential helpers. Attackers can supply URLs containing bare carriage returns to inject additional helper protocol fields and cause credential helpers to return credentials for attacker-specified hosts instead of the requested URL.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 08/28/2026
The vulnerability identified in gitoxide prior to version 0.38.2 represents a critical input validation failure within the library's handling of Uniform Resource Locators during authentication processes. Git, and by extension its Rust-based implementation gitoxide, relies heavily on credential helpers to manage sensitive authentication data such as usernames and passwords for remote repositories. These helpers are invoked with specific parameters derived from the target URL, including the protocol, hostname, path, and port. The core technical flaw lies in the parser's inability to properly sanitize or reject carriage return characters embedded within these URL values before they are passed to external credential helper executables. This oversight allows an attacker to inject raw control characters into the command-line arguments that trigger the authentication flow, effectively breaking the expected parsing boundaries of the helper application.
From a technical perspective, this issue stems from insufficient sanitization of special characters in string inputs destined for subprocess execution. When gitoxide constructs the environment or argument list for a credential helper, it assumes that URL components are well-formed and free of control characters like carriage returns (ASCII 13) or line feeds (ASCII 10). By supplying a URL containing bare carriage return sequences, an attacker can manipulate how subsequent arguments are interpreted by the receiving process. In many command-line parsing contexts, particularly those involving shell-like interpretation or simple whitespace-delimited argument splitting, a newline character acts as a delimiter that terminates one field and initiates another. This allows the injection of additional protocol fields or parameters that were not originally intended to be part of the request payload.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is severe, primarily centering on credential theft and unauthorized access. Because the injected carriage return alters the structure of the arguments passed to the credential helper, an attacker can trick the helper into believing it is authenticating against a different host than the one originally requested by the user or application. Consequently, when the helper returns credentials stored for that specific target host, those sensitive authentication tokens are exposed to the context of the malicious URL. This mechanism facilitates unauthorized access to remote repositories if the attacker controls the destination server and has previously harvested credentials associated with it. It also poses a risk of leaking legitimate credentials into an untrusted environment where they might be intercepted or logged by the attacker-controlled service.
This flaw aligns closely with Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) categories such as CWE-78, Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an OS Command, and CWE-20, Improper Input Validation. The failure to validate input against a strict set of allowed characters before passing it to another program is a classic example of command injection via parameter manipulation. Furthermore, within the context of the MITRE ATT&CK framework, this vulnerability supports techniques related to Credential Access, specifically those involving credential dumping or interception during authentication processes. It highlights the dangers of trusting external inputs in security-critical operations like identity verification and token management.
To mitigate this risk, organizations using gitoxide must ensure they upgrade to version 0.38.2 or later, where the input validation logic has been hardened to reject URLs containing carriage returns and other potentially dangerous control characters. For environments that cannot immediately update, applying strict URL sanitization at the application layer before invoking any git operations can provide a temporary defense-in-depth measure. Developers should also audit their use of credential helpers to ensure they are configured securely and consider using more robust authentication methods such as SSH keys or token-based authentication where possible, reducing reliance on helper-driven password storage mechanisms that may be susceptible to injection attacks if the underlying library is compromised.