CVE-2026-87720: Incorrect Authorization via Stale ProjectCache Eviction and Repeated .git Suffixes in Gerrit Code Review

Severity: high (CVSS 7.6 v4.0)
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: 2026-09-24 · updated 2026-09-25
Weakness: CWE-613

Description

Incorrect Authorization (CWE-863) in project name normalization (ProjectUtil.stripGitSuffix) and ProjectCache eviction logic (ProjectCacheImpl) in Gerrit Code Review versions 2.16.0 through 3.12.9, 3.13.0 through 3.13.8, and 3.14.0 through 3.14.2 allows an authenticated user (or an unauthenticated user if the repository was previously public) to cause unauthorized disclosure of private repository content and durable restoration of revoked project-owner administrative privileges via crafted requests using repeated .git suffixes (such as project.git.git) across REST APIs, Gitiles, or SSH Git commands. Because Gerrit strips only a single terminal .git suffix when constructing the logical ProjectCache key while JGit (FileKey.lenient) resolves the suffixed alias to the same canonical bare repository on disk, revoking read access or removing owner rules on the canonical project name fails to evict the cached alias ProjectState during the cache validity window, enabling reads of newly created private commits or writes to refs/meta/config. This issue is fixed in Gerrit Code Review versions 3.12.10, 3.13.9, and 3.14.3.

Affected products

Gerrit: from 2.16.0 before 3.12.10; from 3.13.0 before 3.13.9; from 3.14.0 before 3.14.3 — fixed in 3.12.10, 3.13.9, 3.14.3

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Gerrit 3.12.10, 3.13.9, 3.14.3. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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