CVE-2026-52726 PUBLISHED

Dulwich's submodule path traversal in porcelain.submodule_update / porcelain.clone(recurse_submodules=True) yields RCE via attacker-dropped .git/hooks payload

Assigner: GitHub_M
Reserved: 08.06.2026 Published: 10.06.2026 Updated: 11.06.2026

Dulwich is a pure-Python implementation of the Git file formats and protocols. Starting in version 0.23.2 and prior to version 1.2.5, dulwich.porcelain.submodule_update, and by extension porcelain.clone(..., recurse_submodules=True), materializes attacker-controlled submodule paths from a crafted upstream repository without path validation. A malicious .gitmodules plus a matching tree gitlink whose path is .git/hooks (or any other directory inside the parent repository's .git directory) causes the attacker's submodule tree contents to be written directly into the victim's .git/hooks/ directory, preserving executable mode bits. The dropped executables are then run by any subsequent git or dulwich command that invokes the matching hook, resulting in arbitrary code execution. This is the dulwich equivalent of the upstream Git fixes for CVE-2024-32002 / CVE-2024-32004, which were never propagated into dulwich's separately implemented submodule porcelain. Version 1.2.5 patches the issue.

Metrics

CVSS Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CVSS Score: 7.5

Product Status

Vendor jelmer
Product dulwich
Versions
  • Version >= 0.23.2, < 1.2.5 is affected

References

Problem Types

  • CWE-22: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal') CWE