VulnerabilityPublished 26 Oct 2026

CVE-2026-114145: Cobo cli · GitPython validates a submodule's ".git" path only after cloning into it (RCE)

Affects cobo-cliSource GCVE Database

Authoritative record:CVE-2026-114145· High 7.5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 7.5 High.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 17:16 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

7.5High

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 28% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

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

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: High
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: Required
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: High
Integrity: High
Availability: High

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed 'remotely exploitable' and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers).
Attack Complexity: High: A successful attack depends on conditions beyond the attacker's control. That is, a successful attack cannot be accomplished at will, but requires the attacker to invest in some measurable amount of effort in preparation or execution against the vulnerable component before a successful attack can be expected. For example, a successful attack may require an attacker to: gather knowledge about the environment in which the vulnerable target/component exists; prepare the target environment to improve exploit reliability; or inject themselves into the logical network path between the target and the resource requested by the victim in order to read and/or modify network communications (e.g., a man in the middle attack).
Privileges Required: None: The attacker is unauthorized prior to attack, and therefore does not require any access to settings or files to carry out an attack.
User Interaction: Required: Successful exploitation of this vulnerability requires a user to take some action before the vulnerability can be exploited.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: High: There is total loss of confidentiality, resulting in all resources within the impacted component being divulged to the attacker. Alternatively, access to only some restricted information is obtained, but the disclosed information presents a direct, serious impact.
Integrity: High: There is a total loss of integrity, or a complete loss of protection. For example, the attacker is able to modify any/all files protected by the impacted component. Alternatively, only some files can be modified, but malicious modification would present a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component.
Availability: High: There is total loss of availability, resulting in the attacker being able to fully deny access to resources in the impacted component; this loss is either sustained (while the attacker continues to deliver the attack) or persistent (the condition persists even after the attack has completed). Alternatively, the attacker has the ability to deny some availability, but the loss of availability presents a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component (e.g., the attacker cannot disrupt existing connections, but can prevent new connections; the attacker can repeatedly exploit a vulnerability that, in each instance of a successful attack, leaks a only small amount of memory, but after repeated exploitation causes a service to become completely unavailable).

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 21 Oct 2026
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 26 Oct 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
Homebrewcobo-cli`pkg:brew/cobo-cli`Other threats	Affected >=0.0.4	Fixed in–

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Description

### Summary `create_submodule(name, path, url)` clones a submodule into the repo's own `.git` directory before it rejects the path. A `path` of ".git/hooks" is accepted by the pre-clone check, so the submodule is cloned straight into the live hooks directory, and a file named `post-checkout` in the submodule becomes an executable `.git/hooks/post-checkout`. On 3.2.0+ the later index check does raise `ValueError`, but only after the clone already wrote to disk, and it does not remove the planted hook; on 3.1.x there is no such check and the call succeeds silently. Either way the hook runs on the next git operation (e.g. checkout), giving code execution. ### Details The checkout path is validated too late, after the clone has already mutated disk. This breaks the "validate before mutation" invariant that commit 43a43cd8 ("Validate submodule checkout and metadata paths before mutation") set out to enforce. Submodule.add() calls the permissive path check before cloning, and the strict check only reaches the ".git" alias at index time, after _clone_repo has written to disk: git/objects/submodule/base.py (Submodule.add) 599: path = cls._to_relative_path(repo, path) # accepts ".git/hooks" 673: mrepo = cls._clone_repo(repo, url, path, name, ...) # clones into <worktree>/.git/hooks 714: index.add([sm], write=True) # strict check only triggers here git/index/base.py (IndexFile._preprocess_add_items) 732: _validate_repo_path(entry.path) # rejects ".git", too late _to_relative_path only blocks `..`/absolute/out-of-tree paths; `.git` aliases are rejected only by _validate_repo_path, which was added in 3.2.0 (commit a75aedf3) and runs at the index boundary. The ValueError it raises at line 732 does not roll back what _clone_repo already wrote. Version-dependent behavior: - 3.2.0 .. tip bda18e08: _validate_repo_path raises ValueError at index.add, but the hook is already on disk and is not removed (incorrect order of validation vs. clone). - 3.1.x (e.g. 3.1.59): _validate_repo_path does not exist and _to_relative_path does not reject `.git`; create_submodule(path=".git/hooks", ...) returns with no error at all and the hook is planted silently. ### Proof of concept Setup: evilsub/ : a git repo whose ROOT contains an executable file named post-checkout (the payload) victim/ : a git repo with at least 1 commit and a second branch, whose .git/hooks has NO sample hooks (the state of a minimal/CI checkout, or `git init` with an empty template dir, or GIT_TEMPLATE_DIR/init.templateDir empty) import git, os.path as osp try: git.Repo("victim").create_submodule(name="x", path=".git/hooks", url=osp.abspath("evilsub")) except ValueError: pass # 3.2.0+: ".git" is rejected, but only AFTER the clone, so the plant already happened. # 3.1.x: no exception is raised at all; the call succeeds and still plants the hook. #### victim/.git/hooks/post-checkout now exists, mode 0755, attacker-controlled, on every #### affected version. Any later checkout runs it: #### git -C victim checkout <other-branch> -> the hook runs -> code execution Verified live: - tip bda18e08 (3.2.0 + 3 commits): create_submodule raised ValueError from git/index/base.py:732, yet .git/hooks/post-checkout was present and executable, and `git checkout` executed it. - 3.1.59: create_submodule returned with no error; .git/hooks/post-checkout was planted and executed by `git checkout`. ### Impact Arbitrary code execution. A library/app that creates a submodule from an attacker-influenced `path` ends up with an attacker-controlled executable in `.git/hooks`, which git runs on ordinary later operations. This affects any service that derives a submodule checkout path from untrusted data, e.g. one that ingests a submodule spec (name/path/url) from a user-supplied manifest or API request and feeds `path` into create_submodule. On 3.2.0+ the library's own validation is the thing that fails: it correctly rejects the `.git` path, but only after the submodule has already been cloned into place, so an app that traps the ValueError reasonably believes the unsafe path was blocked. Preconditions (hence AC:H): (1) the app passes an attacker-influenced submodule `path`; (2) the target hook name is free in `.git/hooks`, true for minimal/CI/container checkouts and whenever init.templateDir/GIT_TEMPLATE_DIR is empty. With the default sample hooks present, `git clone` refuses the non-empty destination and no plant occurs. Affected: all tested versions from 3.1.x (3.1.59) through the current tip bda18e08 (3.2.0 + 3 commits). 3.1.x plants silently; 3.2.0+ plants despite raising ValueError.

References

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