700+ self-hosted Git instances battered in 0-day attacks
www.theregister.com
: More than half of internet-exposed instances already compromised

By ‘Git instances’ they mean Gogs instances that allow open registration. I know most of the community moved from Gogs to Gitea, and then to Forgejo, but thought this was still worth noting.

  • bort@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    114·
    5 days ago

    Here are the steps:

    • The attacker creates a standard Git repository.
    • They commit a single symbolic link pointing to a sensitive target.
    • Using the PutContents API, they write data to the symlink. The system follows the link and overwrites the target file outside the repository.
    • By overwriting .git/config (specifically the sshCommand), the attacker can force the system to execute arbitrary commands–

    amazing.

    • addie@feddit.ukEnglish
      28·
      5 days ago

      Especially since any version of Git from the last view years has a passionate hatred of symlinks for this reason, which is a bit annoying if you’ve a legit usecase. They’re either very out-of-date, or have done some very foolish customisation…

  • Scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.techEnglish
    141·
    5 days ago

    Good note, and good callout, we should always call out these things.

    But yes if you’re self hosting and you both have a public facing instance and allow open registration, you are a much much braver person than I.

    • Jeena@piefed.jeena.netEnglish
      30·
      5 days ago

      I’m not allowing random people hosting their git repos on mine but it’s public and they can fork my own stuff on it in theoretically upload some bullshit.

      • Jason2357@lemmy.caEnglish
        3·
        3 days ago

        Any time you have a server willing to process random data uploaded from randos, just expect it to be compromised eventually and prepare for the eventuality by isolating it, backing it up religiously, and setting up good monitoring of some sort. Doesnt matter if its a forge, a wiki, or like nextcloud or whatever. It will happen.

        • Jason2357@lemmy.caEnglish
          2·
          3 days ago

          To anyone afraid of the above conclusion, a dedicated $5 VPS with automatic snapshots get you a long way.

          • WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            1·
            2 days ago

            if the server is compromised, all the data it stores is at risk of getting drleted or modified. so I don’t think a VPS really solves the problem.

        • Jeena@piefed.jeena.netEnglish
          7·
          5 days ago

          Oh, there is still some Lemmy link somewhere? I’m trying to find it but couldn’t, where did you see it?

              • irmadlad@lemmy.worldEnglish
                6·
                4 days ago

                I live in South Korea, brew beer

                Way off topic, but I use to be a prolific brewer of beer. In fact the rig that I built can turn 50 gallons of wort in about 3 hours and it’s ready to pitch the yeast in. Brewing beer is a very fascinating process. I also made meads, wines, and have dabbled in sake, tho I wouldn’t say my sake was ready for prime time. LOL And you are a musician. I already like you and I don’t even know you. LOL

                • Jeena@piefed.jeena.netEnglish
                  8·
                  4 days ago

                  Haha, yeah, although some of my hobbies slowed down a lot since I got a family. Small children really take up a lot of time.

                  Today for example the 2.5 years old ate a lot of potato’s and schnitzel without really chewing. Then he drank a ton of milk after dinner. While his big sister already went to bed at 21:30 he was still jumping on the bed at 22:00 und suddenly he puked out everything on the bed. So we had to clean RhE bed, the floor, him and us, was everything, shower etc.

                  Now it’s 23:00 and he is still excited about it and is singing in the freshly made bed instead of sleeping.

                  Actually we wanted to watch a episode of some TV series bit now it’s way too late for this.

  • GreenKnight23@lemmy.worldEnglish
    17·
    4 days ago

    this is what I’m talking about when it comes to the selfhosted communities.

    if you don’t know how to properly segment and vlan your network, you have no business exposing your shit to the internet.

    • Jason2357@lemmy.caEnglish
      12·
      3 days ago

      While good, network security isnt the issue. Its running a web service with open registration allowing randos to upload content that gets processed by the server.

      Throw this up on a dedicated $5 VPS and you still have a problem. The default should be manual registration by admins.

  • Lem453@lemmy.caEnglish
    21·
    5 days ago

    If i remember correctly on my gitea (now forgejo) the default is open registration which really shouldn’t be the case for projects that are targeted towards self hosters.

    My inital install was a long time ago so I don’t remember for sure

    • Jade@programming.devEnglish
      7·
      4 days ago

      Yeah in my project open registration is behind an option called yes_i_am_very_very_sure_i_want_an_open_registration_server_prone_to_abuse lol

    • Jason2357@lemmy.caEnglish
      2·
      3 days ago

      This absolutely. Anyone who actually wants open registration will be configuring their own SSO or whatever backend. The default should be safe for testing and/or hobbyists.

          • klangcola@reddthat.comEnglish
            3·
            5 days ago

            I just did it not long a ago. Gittea -> Forgejo10 -> Forgejo11 LTS, in Docker. Surprisingly quick, painless and smooth.

            (My only issue was not Forgejo, but MySQL. Because the hardware is ancient and Docker compose pulled down a new version of mysql8 at the same time as pulling forgejo. New version of mysql8 didnt support my CPU architecture. Easy fix was to change the label mysql8oraclelinux7 in Docker compose and pull that image. There is a issue with solutions in the MySQL Docker GitHub repo)

                • lambalicious@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
                  2·
                  4 days ago

                  If MySQL is more robust than SQLite of all things, something is going seriously wrong.

                  Then again, it’s 2025. I no longer bet on what to expect from reality. Next someone points me to a mail indicating linux kernel will move its bookkeeping to MongoDB.

              • klangcola@reddthat.comEnglish
                2·
                4 days ago

                To be honest I don’t remember why I set up gitea with MySQL instead of sqlite (or MariaDB), its quite a few years ago. And sqlite would probably be fine for my single-user instance

      • youmaynotknow@lemmy.zipEnglish
        1·
        5 days ago

        Doesn’t seem like Gitea has that issue, and just keep registrations disabled if possible and if your projects allow, avoid symlinking.

    • Encrypt-Keeper@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      4 days ago

      Reading between the lines I feel like when you say “Targeted towards self hosters” what you mean is “John Q Hobbyist who doesn’t know any better”

      And in response to that I would contend that Gitea is not actually targeted at those folks, though they obviously use it. Gitea is FOSS but it’s still “targeted” at professionals.