CVE-2020-26222: Remote code execution in dependabot-core

Severity: high (CVSS 8.8 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 3.1% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: yes
Published: 2020-11-13 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-74

Description

Dependabot is a set of packages for automated dependency management for Ruby, JavaScript, Python, PHP, Elixir, Rust, Java, .NET, Elm and Go. In Dependabot-Core from version 0.119.0.beta1 before version 0.125.1, there is a remote code execution vulnerability in dependabot-common and dependabot-go_modules when a source branch name contains malicious injectable bash code. For example, if Dependabot is configured to use the following source branch name: "/$({curl,127.0.0.1})", Dependabot will make a HTTP request to the following URL: 127.0.0.1 when cloning the source repository. The fix was applied to version 0.125.1. As a workaround, one can escape the branch name prior to passing it to the Dependabot::Source class.

Affected products

dependabot-core: from 0.119.1 before 0.125.1; 0.119.0, 0.119.0-beta1 — fixed in 0.125.1

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: dependabot-core 0.125.1. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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