CVE-2025-48384: Critical Git Vulnerability Actively Exploited

Root Security Bulletin: CVE-2025-48384 – Critical Git Vulnerability Actively Exploited

Date: August 26, 2025 Severity: High (CVSS v3.1 Score: 8.0)

Overview

A critical Git vulnerability, CVE-2025-48384, has been identified and is actively exploited in the wild, now listed in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog. This flaw enables remote code execution (RCE) through malicious repositories and poses a significant risk to developers and CI/CD pipelines across Linux and macOS systems. Windows installations are unaffected due to filesystem restrictions.

The vulnerability impacts all Git versions prior to the patched releases issued on July 8, 2025. While Ubuntu responded immediately with security advisories, Debian has marked the issue "no-dsa," delaying fixes until future point releases—leaving many Debian-based environments exposed.

Technical Details

The vulnerability arises from an inconsistency in Git's configuration parsing logic:

• When reading config values, Git strips trailing CRLF characters.

• When writing, values with trailing carriage returns (CR) are not properly quoted, leading to discrepancies when read back.

Attackers can exploit this by creating malicious .gitmodules files with submodule paths ending in CR characters. When combined with symlinked hooks directories and executable post-checkout hooks, this enables arbitrary file writes and ultimately remote code execution.

Exploitation scenario: Victims running git clone --recursive on a malicious repository may initialize submodules in unintended filesystem locations. Security researchers (liamg, acheong08, and others) have published proof-of-concept exploits validating the attack's real-world impact.

Affected versions:

• Git versions prior to 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

• Systems: Linux, macOS (where control characters are allowed in filenames)

• Not affected: Windows

• CVSS v3.1 Vector: AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

• Base Score: 8.0 (High)

Impact

• Active exploitation confirmed: CISA added CVE-2025-48384 to its KEV catalog on August 25, 2025, with a remediation deadline of September 15, 2025 for U.S. federal agencies.

• Developer tools at risk: GitHub Desktop for macOS is particularly vulnerable due to its default use of recursive cloning.

• Distribution disparity: Ubuntu issued immediate advisories and patches, while Debian deferred remediation, leaving production systems running Bookworm, Bullseye, or Trixie without timely fixes.

This uneven patching cadence underscores the supply chain risks when critical open-source infrastructure receives inconsistent remediation across ecosystems.

Timeline

• July 8, 2025: Git project discloses CVE-2025-48384 and issues patched releases across eight version branches.

• July 9-15, 2025: Security researchers publish multiple proof-of-concept exploits, confirming real-world exploitability.

• August 8, 2025: Root tested, backported, and deployed patches for Debian Bookworm, Bullseye, Trixie, and all Slim variants, delivering them seamlessly across all Root users' environments without disruption.

• August 15, 2025: Debian marked the issue as "no-dsa," opting for remediation only in future point releases.

• August 25, 2025: CISA added CVE-2025-48384 to the KEV catalog, mandating U.S. federal agencies remediate by September 15.

Recommendations

For Debian Users

Confirm exposure: Determine if your systems use the git package maintained by Debian. Tools like Trivy or enterprise vulnerability scanners can quickly verify vulnerable versions.

Short-term mitigations:

• Avoid git clone --recursive on untrusted repositories.

• Inspect .gitmodules files before initializing submodules.

• Consider compiling patched versions of Git from source where feasible.

For Root Users

Customers using Root's Agentic Vulnerability Remediation (AVR) platform are already protected. Root delivered patched and backported Git packages on August 8, 2025, covering Debian Bookworm, Bullseye, Trixie, and all Slim variants. Patches were deployed seamlessly across all user environments without disruption.

Users can verify their protection in the Artifact Explorer or trigger an on-demand remediation in under five minutes.

Extended availability: Root's patched versions are also accessible through partners such as Aikido and scanners using Trivy, where advanced tier subscribers receive immediate coverage.

For Non-Customers

Get free remediation: Sign up at app.root.io to remediate affected images and push them back to your repositories at no cost. 

Root's Approach

Root’s Agentic Vulnerability Remediation (AVR) technology leverages AI-driven automation overseen by security experts, replicating the decision-making of seasoned engineers at scale.

The platform operates in five phases:

1. Assessment – Mapping CVEs across known databases.

2. Recommendation – Identifying the optimal remediation path.

3. Application – Applying and backporting security patches where needed.

4. Validation – Rigorous testing against public frameworks.

5. Deployment – Delivering fully remediated, auditable images.

Unlike traditional vulnerability scanners, Root fixes vulnerabilities proactively—eliminating false positives, providing comprehensive SBOMs and VEX statements, and reducing remediation time to minutes.

Conclusion

CVE-2025-48384 highlights both the responsiveness of the Git project and the uneven patching practices across Linux distributions. While upstream patches were released promptly, Debian's deferred remediation created a critical exposure window that attackers are already exploiting.

Organizations relying on Debian-based containers cannot afford to wait for delayed point releases. Automated remediation platforms like Root AVR bridge this gap by providing continuous, proactive protection at container-build speeds—ensuring development teams remain secure without sacrificing velocity.

For broader industry analysis of what this vulnerability reveals about modern security approaches, see our blog post: CVE- 2025-48384: The Git Vulnerability That's Exposing a Broken System.

Take action now: Explore Root's remediation for CVE-2025-48384 at app.root.io