CVE-2026-70406: Gitea private comparison disclosure with public-only tokens

Severity: medium (CVSS 6.5 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.3% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2026-10-14 · updated 2026-10-14
Weakness: CWE-863

Description

Gitea's shared comparison helper omits the token repository-access check used when updating pull requests. A public-only token with read:repository scope can route a comparison or pull request creation through a public base repository and retrieve commit history and diffs from a private head repository accessible to the token owner. This bypasses the token's public-only restriction; it does not remove the account's underlying repository permission checks.

Affected products

Gitea Open Source Git Server: through 1.27.2

References

https://blog.gitea.com/release-of-1.27.3/
https://github.com/go-gitea/gitea/pull/39006
https://github.com/go-gitea/gitea/pull/39013
https://github.com/go-gitea/gitea/releases/tag/v1.27.3
https://github.com/go-gitea/gitea/security/advisories/GHSA-m78w-jjjx-gp8r

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