CVE-2026-20897: Gitea Git LFS Lock Deletion Broken Access Control (Cross-Repo IDOR)

Severity: critical (CVSS 9.1 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.5% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2026-01-22 · updated 2026-07-15
Weakness: CWE-284

Description

Gitea does not properly validate repository ownership when deleting Git LFS locks. A user with write access to one repository may be able to delete LFS locks belonging to other repositories.

Affected products

Gitea Open Source Git Server: before 1.25.4 — fixed in 1.25.4

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Gitea Open Source Git Server 1.25.4. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

https://blog.gitea.com/release-of-1.25.4/
https://github.com/go-gitea/gitea/pull/36344
https://github.com/go-gitea/gitea/pull/36349
https://github.com/go-gitea/gitea/releases/tag/v1.25.4
https://github.com/go-gitea/gitea/security/advisories/GHSA-rrq5-r9h5-pc7c
https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-20897
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2432204
https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/2026/cve-2026-20897.json

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