Reference page — cumulative record through Sunday, October 4, 2026 UTC. Reference pages update as the archive grows; only dated daily editions are immutable pages of record.

CVE-2026-5917

CVE-2026-5917HIGH

libgit2 Shell Command Injection via ssh_libssh2 Backend

  AV  AC  AT  PR  UI  VC  VI  VA   CVSS    EPSS   %ile   KEV
   N   L   N   N   A   H   H   H    8.6   .0143   72.0     —

AFFECTED
  Product  Versions     Fixed
  libgit2  unspecified  —

TIMELINE
  Apr 8   Reserved by VulnCheck
  Aug 11  Published (CNA: VulnCheck)
  Aug 26  RESCORED — CVE-2026-5917 (libgit2). CVSS 9.4 → 8.6 (NVD).

CWE-78 · CNA: VulnCheck · CVSS v4.0 · 3 references · NVD status: Deferred

Description

libgit2 versions before 1.8.7 and 1.9.0 before 1.9.7 built with the libssh2 SSH backend (USE_SSH=libssh2) contain a shell command injection vulnerability that allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary commands on an SSH server by supplying a repository path containing unescaped shell metacharacters such as single quotes, semicolons, or pipes. The gen_proto() function in ssh_libssh2.c inserts the repository path directly into a shell command string without escaping special characters before passing it to libssh2_channel_exec(), enabling an attacker to craft a malicious submodule URL in a .gitmodules file that, when processed during a recursive clone, causes the remote server's shell to interpret injected commands under the victim's SSH user account.

Lifecycle

Complete event history — 3 events, chronological
Date	Event	Detail
April 8, 2026	Reserved	Reserved by VulnCheck
August 11, 2026	Published	Published (CNA: VulnCheck)
August 26, 2026	RESCORED	RESCORED — CVE-2026-5917 (libgit2). CVSS 9.4 → 8.6 (NVD).

Affected

Affected products and packages — 1 row
Vendor	Product / Package	Ecosystem	Version introduced	Fixed
libgit2	libgit2	—	—	—

Weaknesses

CWE-78

References (3)

https://github.com/libgit2/libgit2 [product]
https://github.com/libgit2/libgit2/security/advisories/GHSA-xqj4-2j5v-rr75 [vendor-advisory, patch]
https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/libgit2-shell-command-injection-via-ssh-libssh2-backend [third-party-advisory]

Authoritative record: CVE-2026-5917 at cve.org

Vendors: libgit2

Weaknesses: CWE-78

About this page

This is a reference page, not a dated page of record. It assembles the complete lifecycle of CVE-2026-5917 from the CVE Program record, NVD enrichment, the CISA KEV catalog, EPSS, and OSV advisories. The box score's numbers (CVSS, EPSS, KEV status) are current as of Sunday, October 4, 2026 UTC and are re-derived as the archive grows; only dated daily editions are immutable pages of record. The authoritative source for this identifier is cve.org.