CVE-2025-3509

moderate-risk
Published 2025-04-17

A Remote Code Execution (RCE) vulnerability was identified in GitHub Enterprise Server that allowed attackers to execute arbitrary code by exploiting the pre-receive hook functionality, potentially leading to privilege escalation and system compromise. The vulnerability involves using dynamically allocated ports that become temporarily available, such as during a hot patch upgrade. This means the vulnerability is only exploitable during specific operational conditions, which limits the attack window. Exploitation required either site administrator permissions to enable and configure pre-receive hooks or a user with permissions to modify repositories containing pre-receive hooks where this functionality was already enabled. This vulnerability affected all versions of GitHub Enterprise Server prior to 3.18 and was fixed in versions 3.17.1, 3.16.4, 3.15.8, 3.14.13, 3.13.16. This vulnerability was reported via the GitHub Bug Bounty program.

Do I need to act?

~
2.3% chance of exploitation in next 30 days
EPSS score — moderate exploit probability
-
Not on CISA KEV list
No confirmed active exploitation reported to CISA
?
Patch status unknown
Check vendor advisories for fix availability and mitigation guidance
7
CVSS 7.2/10 High
NETWORK / LOW complexity

Affected Products (1)

Affected Vendors

Github

References (5)

Release Notes https://docs.github.com/en/enterprise-server@3.13/admin/release-notes#3.13.16
Release Notes https://docs.github.com/en/enterprise-server@3.14/admin/release-notes#3.14.13
Release Notes https://docs.github.com/en/enterprise-server@3.15/admin/release-notes#3.15.8
Release Notes https://docs.github.com/en/enterprise-server@3.16/admin/release-notes#3.16.4
Release Notes https://docs.github.com/en/enterprise-server@3.17/admin/release-notes#3.17.1
36
/ 100
moderate-risk
Severity 26/34 · High
Exploitability 5/34 · Minimal
Exposure 5/34 · Minimal