What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities

CVE-2019-1211: Git for Visual Studio Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability

• Severity: high (CVSS 7.3 v3.0)
• Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
• EPSS: 1.7% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
• Public exploit or detection template: none known
• Published: 2019-08-14 · updated 2026-06-17

Description

An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists in Git for Visual Studio when it improperly parses configuration files. An attacker who successfully exploited the vulnerability could execute code in the context of another local user. To exploit the vulnerability, an authenticated attacker would need to modify Git configuration files on a system prior to a full installation of the application. The attacker would then need to convince another user on the system to execute specific Git commands. The update addresses the issue by changing the permissions required to edit configuration files.

Affected products

• Microsoft Visual Studio 2017 version 15.9 (includes 15.0 - 15.8): 15.9
• Microsoft Visual Studio 2019: 16.0, 16.2
• Microsoft Visual Studio 2019 version 16.0: from 16.0 before publication — fixed in publication
• Microsoft Visual Studio 2019 version 16.2: from 16.0 before publication — fixed in publication
• Microsoft Visual Studio 2017 version 15.9 (includes 15.0 - 15.8): from 15.0 before publication — fixed in publication

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Microsoft Visual Studio 2019 version 16.0 publication; Microsoft Visual Studio 2019 version 16.2 publication; Microsoft Visual Studio 2017 version 15.9 (includes 15.0 - 15.8) publication. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

• https://portal.msrc.microsoft.com/en-US/security-guidance/advisory/CVE-2019-1211
• https://portal.msrc.microsoft.com/en-US/security-guidance/advisory/CVE-2019-1211

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