A privilege escalation vulnerability was identified in GitHub Enterprise Server that allowed an authenticated Enterprise admin to gain root SSH access to the appliance by exploiting a symlink escape in pre-receive hook environments. By crafting a malicious repository and environment, an attacker could replace system binaries during hook cleanup and execute a payload that adds their own SSH key to the root user’s authorized keys—thereby granting themselves root SSH access to the server. To exploit this vulnerability, the attacker needed to have enterprise admin privileges. This vulnerability affected all versions of GitHub Enterprise Server prior to 3.19, and was fixed in versions 3.14.19, 3.15.14, 3.16.10, 3.17.7 and 3.18.1. This vulnerability was reported via the GitHub Bug Bounty program.
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History

Wed, 12 Nov 2025 13:00:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Github
Github enterprise Server
Vendors & Products Github
Github enterprise Server

Mon, 10 Nov 2025 23:00:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description A privilege escalation vulnerability was identified in GitHub Enterprise Server that allowed an authenticated Enterprise admin to gain root SSH access to the appliance by exploiting a symlink escape in pre-receive hook environments. By crafting a malicious repository and environment, an attacker could replace system binaries during hook cleanup and execute a payload that adds their own SSH key to the root user’s authorized keys—thereby granting themselves root SSH access to the server. To exploit this vulnerability, the attacker needed to have enterprise admin privileges. This vulnerability affected all versions of GitHub Enterprise Server prior to 3.19, and was fixed in versions 3.14.19, 3.15.14, 3.16.10, 3.17.7 and 3.18.1. This vulnerability was reported via the GitHub Bug Bounty program.
Title Pre-Receive Hook Path Collision Vulnerability in GitHub Enterprise Server Allowing Privilege Escalation
Weaknesses CWE-59
References
Metrics cvssV4_0

{'score': 7.5, 'vector': 'CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:H/AT:P/PR:H/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N'}


cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: GitHub_P

Published:

Updated: 2025-11-10T22:44:33.200Z

Reserved: 2025-10-10T07:00:07.064Z

Link: CVE-2025-11578

cve-icon Vulnrichment

No data.

cve-icon NVD

Status : Received

Published: 2025-11-10T23:15:41.193

Modified: 2025-11-10T23:15:41.193

Link: CVE-2025-11578

cve-icon Redhat

No data.

cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

Updated: 2025-11-12T12:48:11Z