Bug 2235871 (CVE-2023-40590)

Summary: CVE-2023-40590 gitpython: improper executable lookup on windows
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: Anten Skrabec <askrabec>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security <prodsec-ir-bot>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
Severity: high Docs Contact:
Priority: high    
Version: unspecifiedCC: bbuckingham, bcourt, davidn, eglynn, ehelms, epacific, jcammara, jhardy, jjoyce, jneedle, jobarker, jschluet, jsherril, jweng, lhh, lzap, mabashia, mburns, mgarciac, mhulan, nmoumoul, nobody, orabin, pcreech, pgrist, rchan, simaishi, smcdonal, teagle, yguenane, zsadeh
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: Security
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Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
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A flaw was found in Python/Windows. When resolving a program, it looks for the current working directory followed by the PATH environment. GitPython defaults to use the git command if a user runs GitPython from a repo, has a git.exe, or git executable, that program will run instead of the one in the user's PATH.
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Description Anten Skrabec 2023-08-29 22:21:04 UTC 
 GitPython is a python library used to interact with Git repositories. When resolving a program, Python/Windows look for the current working directory, and after that the PATH environment. GitPython defaults to use the `git` command, if a user runs GitPython from a repo has a `git.exe` or `git` executable, that program will be run instead of the one in the user's `PATH`. This is more of a problem on how Python interacts with Windows systems, Linux and any other OS aren't affected by this. But probably people using GitPython usually run it from the CWD of a repo. An attacker can trick a user to download a repository with a malicious `git` executable, if the user runs/imports GitPython from that directory, it allows the attacker to run any arbitrary commands. There is no fix currently available for windows users, however there are a few mitigations. 1: Default to an absolute path for the git program on Windows, like `C:\\Program Files\\Git\\cmd\\git.EXE` (default git path installation). 2: Require users to set the `GIT_PYTHON_GIT_EXECUTABLE` environment variable on Windows systems. 3: Make this problem prominent in the documentation and advise users to never run GitPython from an untrusted repo, or set the `GIT_PYTHON_GIT_EXECUTABLE` env var to an absolute path. 4: Resolve the executable manually by only looking into the `PATH` environment variable.

https://docs.python.org/3/library/subprocess.html#popen-constructor
https://github.com/gitpython-developers/GitPython/security/advisories/GHSA-wfm5-v35h-vwf4