CVE-2017-12976
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedgit-annex before 6.20170818 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary commands via an ssh URL with an initial dash character in the hostname, as demonstrated by an ssh://-eProxyCommand= URL, a related issue to CVE-2017-9800, CVE-2017-12836, CVE-2017-1000116, and CVE-2017-1000117.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidencegit-annex before 6.20170818 fails to sanitize SSH URLs properly, allowing remote attackers to inject command-line options via the hostname portion (e.g., ssh://-eProxyCommand=...). When git-annex constructs SSH commands, the dash-prefixed hostname is interpreted as a flag rather than a hostname, enabling arbitrary command execution.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data<= 6.20170520CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Find installed git-annex versionRun 'git annex version' or 'git annex --version' to display the installed version numberAffected if Version displayed is 6.20170520 or earlier (vulnerable), or version cannot be determined (may not be git-annex)
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Confirm version is in affected rangeCompare your installed version to the affected range: versions 6.20170520 and earlier are vulnerable; version 6.20170818 and later include the fixAffected if Your installed version is 6.20170520 or lower
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Identify configured SSH remotesRun 'git remote -v' to list all configured remotes, then run 'git annex info' to check for git-annex special remotesAffected if Any remote uses an ssh:// URL scheme (e.g., ssh://user@host/path or ssh://-eProxyCommand=...@host/path)
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Check for untrusted or user-supplied SSH URLsReview your repository configuration and any scripts that configure git-annex remotes using SSH URLs from external sourcesAffected if SSH remotes were configured using URLs from untrusted sources, or URLs contain suspicious hostname patterns like '-X', '-o', or '-e' prefixes
You are affected if git-annex version is 6.20170520 or earlier AND you have SSH remotes configured that could accept maliciously crafted URLs.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataUpgrade git-annex to version 6.20170818 or later which includes proper URL/sanitization validation. Avoid processing untrusted SSH URLs from unknown sources as a workaround.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,848.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2017-12976 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2017-12976 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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