CVE-2021-22861 - CVE House
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Status published Medium CVE-2021-22861

Improper access control in GitHub Enterprise Server leading to unauthorized write access to forkable repositories

Vulnerability Description

An improper access control vulnerability was identified in GitHub Enterprise Server that allowed authenticated users of the instance to gain write access to unauthorized repositories via specifically crafted pull requests and REST API requests. An attacker would need to be able to fork the targeted repository, a setting that is disabled by default for organization owned private repositories. Branch protections such as required pull request reviews or status checks would prevent unauthorized commits from being merged without further review or validation. This vulnerability affected all versions of GitHub Enterprise Server since 2.4.21 and was fixed in versions 2.20.24, 2.21.15, 2.22.7 and 3.0.1. This vulnerability was reported via the GitHub Bug Bounty program.

Impact Analysis

Refer to official advisory for detailed impact metrics.

Remediation

Ensure systems are updated to the latest vendor-supplied patch levels.

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Credits & Attribution

The following person or organization is credited with identifying this vulnerability, as recorded in the NVD database:

  • Teddy Katz

Affected Vendor

Affected Software

GitHub Enterprise Server
Vulnerable Versions:
2.20, 2.21, 2.22, 3.0

Timeline

Official Publish: March 3rd, 2021
Last Modified: August 3rd, 2024
Added to House: July 21st, 2026

CVSS Vectors

V3: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N

Weaknesses (CWE)