← Vulnerability feed

Vulnerability record · CVE-2022-41953 · published 17 January 2023

CVE-2022-41953: Git-scm git untrusted search path vulnerability

Git Scm · Git

Git GUI is a convenient graphical tool that comes with Git for Windows. Its target audience is users who are uncomfortable with using Git on the command-line. Git GUI has a function to clone repositories. Immediately after the local clone is available, Git GUI will automatically post-process it, among other things running a spell checker called `aspell.exe` if it was found. Git GUI is implemented as a Tcl/Tk script. Due to the unfortunate design of Tcl on Windows, the search path when looking for an executable _always includes the current directory_. Therefore, malicious repositories can ship with an `aspell.exe` in their top-level directory which is executed by Git GUI without giving the user a chance to inspect it first, i.e. running untrusted code. This issue has been addressed in version 2.39.1. Users are advised to upgrade. Users unable to upgrade should avoid using Git GUI for cloning. If that is not a viable option, at least avoid cloning from untrusted sources.

7.8 CVSS 3.1 High EPSS 6.8% · top 6.2% CWE-426 · Untrusted search path
7.8CVSS 3.1 base score
6.8%EPSS exploitation probability, 30 days
NoNot in CISA KEV
1Affected product versions listed by NVD
8References
17 Jun 2026Last modified by NVD

Description

Git GUI is a convenient graphical tool that comes with Git for Windows. Its target audience is users who are uncomfortable with using Git on the command-line. Git GUI has a function to clone repositories. Immediately after the local clone is available, Git GUI will automatically post-process it, among other things running a spell checker called `aspell.exe` if it was found. Git GUI is implemented as a Tcl/Tk script. Due to the unfortunate design of Tcl on Windows, the search path when looking for an executable _always includes the current directory_. Therefore, malicious repositories can ship with an `aspell.exe` in their top-level directory which is executed by Git GUI without giving the user a chance to inspect it first, i.e. running untrusted code. This issue has been addressed in version 2.39.1. Users are advised to upgrade. Users unable to upgrade should avoid using Git GUI for cloning. If that is not a viable option, at least avoid cloning from untrusted sources.

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Affected products

1 vulnerable configurations from NVD's CPE data, grouped by vendor and product.

References

LinkTags
https://github.com/git-for-windows/git/commit/7360767e8dfc1895a932324079f7d45d7791d39f PatchThird Party Advisory
https://github.com/git-for-windows/git/pull/4219 PatchThird Party Advisory
https://github.com/git-for-windows/git/security/advisories/GHSA-v4px-mx59-w99c PatchThird Party Advisory
https://www.tcl.tk/man/tcl8.6/TclCmd/exec.html#M23 Third Party Advisory
https://github.com/git-for-windows/git/commit/7360767e8dfc1895a932324079f7d45d7791d39f PatchThird Party Advisory
https://github.com/git-for-windows/git/pull/4219 PatchThird Party Advisory
https://github.com/git-for-windows/git/security/advisories/GHSA-v4px-mx59-w99c PatchThird Party Advisory
https://www.tcl.tk/man/tcl8.6/TclCmd/exec.html#M23 Third Party Advisory

Track CVE-2022-41953 inside VULONE

Watch it alongside the ransomware crews, C2 infrastructure and forum chatter that reference it, query it through the API and pull it into your SIEM over TAXII.

Start free Open in platform

Related vulnerabilities

Same products first, then exploited flaws of the same weakness class.

8.0CVE-2025-48384Git config CRLF handling allows submodule path link-following code executionGit mishandles trailing carriage returns when writing config values, so a submodule path ending in CR is read back altered during submodule initializ…KEVEPSS 4.2%analysed9.8CVE-2022-23521Git gitattributes parsing integer overflow enables heap corruptionGit's gitattributes parser suffers multiple integer overflows when handling a huge number of path patterns, many attributes for one pattern, or very …EPSS 56%analysed9.8CVE-2022-41903Git-scm git integer overflow vulnerabilityGit is distributed revision control system. `git log` can display commits in an arbitrary format using its `--format` specifiers. This functionality …EPSS 44%9.8CVE-2014-9390Git clients execute commands via crafted .git/config on case-insensitive filesystemsGit, Mercurial, libgit2, JGit, EGit and Xcode mishandle crafted .git/config paths on Windows and OS X, allowing a remote repository to place a file t…EPSS 76%analysed9.8CVE-2019-1353Git-scm git vulnerabilityAn issue was found in Git before v2.24.1, v2.23.1, v2.22.2, v2.21.1, v2.20.2, v2.19.3, v2.18.2, v2.17.3, v2.16.6, v2.15.4, and v2.14.6. When running …EPSS 2.2%9.8CVE-2018-19486Git-scm git untrusted search path vulnerabilityGit before 2.19.2 on Linux and UNIX executes commands from the current working directory (as if '.' were at the end of $PATH) in certain cases involv…EPSS 4.1%9.8CVE-2018-17456Git recursive clone argument injection enables remote code executionGit versions before the fixed releases mishandle a .gitmodules URL field that begins with a '-' character during recursive 'git clone' of a superproj…EPSS 97%analysed9.8CVE-2016-2324Suse linux enterprise debuginfo memory buffer overflow vulnerabilityInteger overflow in Git before 2.7.4 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a (1) long filename or (2) many nested trees, which trigge…EPSS 18%

Source: NIST National Vulnerability Database (record CVE-2022-41953), CISA KEV, FIRST EPSS (scores of 2026-09-28). This page is refreshed as NVD updates the record.