CVE-2025-48384Git Link Following Vulnerability
CVE-2025-48384 is a link following in Git, rated high (8.0 on CVSS 3.1).
Why this priority: Exploited in the wild: listed in CISA's KEV catalog.
Published · Updated · NVD status: Analyzed
What it is
The software follows a symbolic link an attacker planted, so it reads or writes a file other than the one it checked. Two components read the same input differently, and an attacker exploits the gap.
How it is reached
An attacker can exploit it over the network, with an ordinary user account, but someone has to act first, such as opening a file or following a link. Success also depends on conditions the attacker does not fully control.
What an attacker gains
A successful attack can read the data it protects, change data or behaviour and take it offline. In practice, this kind of flaw lets an attacker read or write files outside the folders the service meant to expose. The damage can spread past the vulnerable component into others.
Is it being exploited?
CISA added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2025-08-25: it is being exploited in the wild. EPSS estimates a 4.4% chance of exploitation activity in the next 30 days, higher than 91% of scored CVEs.
What to do
- Treat it as urgent: it is on CISA's KEV list. CISA's deadline for US federal agencies: 2025-09-15.
- Upgrade Git to a fixed version for your release line (2.43.7, 2.44.4, 2.45.4).
- Until it is patched, review who holds accounts that can reach it.
- Warn the people who use it, and filter files and links on the way in.
- Check exposed instances for signs of compromise, not only for the version.
Description from NVD
Git is a fast, scalable, distributed revision control system with an unusually rich command set that provides both high-level operations and full access to internals. When reading a config value, Git strips any trailing carriage return and line feed (CRLF). When writing a config entry, values with a trailing CR are not quoted, causing the CR to be lost when the config is later read. When initializing a submodule, if the submodule path contains a trailing CR, the altered path is read resulting in the submodule being checked out to an incorrect location. If a symlink exists that points the altered path to the submodule hooks directory, and the submodule contains an executable post-checkout hook, the script may be unintentionally executed after checkout. This vulnerability is fixed in v2.43.7, v2.44.4, v2.45.4, v2.46.4, v2.47.3, v2.48.2, v2.49.1, and v2.50.1.
What this means for your architecture.
A CVE names a product. Whether it matters depends on where that product sits in your systems: what reaches it, which trust boundary it guards and what it can reach once compromised. Veriom maps your components, their relationships and your trust boundaries from your code, cloud and delivery evidence, so you can see where a component like this sits. The radar itself does not look at your systems.
Components it touches
- Operating systems on servers, workstations or devices. Everything on the host inherits the flaw.
- File storage the service can read or write. The flaw sits between the application and the file system it can reach.
- Proxies, load balancers and the servers behind them. The flaw sits between a front-end proxy and its back end.
Trust boundaries in play
- Authenticated network access. An account is needed, so exposure follows who can sign in: customers, partners or staff.
- People who open files and links. Mail, chat and browsers are the delivery path.
- Isolation between components. The impact crosses out of the vulnerable component into others it should be isolated from.
- Between the application and the file system it can reach. An attacker who crosses it can read or write files outside the folders the service meant to expose.
Questions to answer about your own systems
- Where does Git run in your systems, and at which version?
- Which of those instances can be reached from the internet or partner networks?
- What can it reach once compromised: which data stores, secrets and services?
Read more
Advisories
More reading
Sources
- CVE records and CVSS scores from the NVD CVE API. This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD.
- Exploitation status from CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.
- Exploit likelihood from FIRST’s Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS), refreshed daily.
- Explanations are written by Veriom from fixed templates over each record’s data, not by a person reviewing each CVE. Descriptions are quoted from the records as published.