CVE-2026-5917

A flaw was found in libgit2 when built with the libssh2 SSH backend. This vulnerability allows a remote attacker to execute arbitrary commands on an SSH server. By crafting a malicious repository path containing unescaped shell metacharacters, an attacker can inject commands that are then interpreted by the remote server's shell during operations like a recursive clone. This could lead to arbitrary code execution under the victim's SSH user account.

This is an Important flaw. Red Hat products utilizing libgit2 with the libssh2 SSH backend are susceptible to remote arbitrary code execution. This occurs when processing a maliciously crafted repository path containing unescaped shell metacharacters during a recursive clone operation, allowing an attacker to inject and execute commands on the SSH server under the victim's user account.

The CVSS score(s) listed for this vulnerability do not reflect the associated product's status, and are included for informational purposes to better understand the severity of this vulnerability.

To mitigate this issue, avoid cloning Git repositories from untrusted sources, especially those containing submodules. If possible, disable automatic recursive cloning of submodules when working with potentially untrusted repositories. Ensure that SSH user accounts used for cloning have minimal necessary privileges to limit the impact of successful exploitation.