The "SECURITY" section of the gitnamespaces(7) man page described two ways for a client to steal data from a server that wasn't intended to be shared. Similar attacks can be performed by a server on a client, so adapt the section to cover both directions and add it to the git-fetch(1), git-pull(1), and git-push(1) man pages. Also add references to this section from the documentation of server configuration options that attempt to control data leakage but may not be fully effective. Signed-off-by: Matt McCutchen <matt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> --- Documentation/config.txt | 17 ++++++++++++++--- Documentation/git-fetch.txt | 2 ++ Documentation/git-pull.txt | 2 ++ Documentation/git-push.txt | 2 ++ Documentation/gitnamespaces.txt | 20 +------------------- Documentation/transfer-data-leaks.txt | 30 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 6 files changed, 51 insertions(+), 22 deletions(-) create mode 100644 Documentation/transfer-data-leaks.txt diff --git a/Documentation/config.txt b/Documentation/config.txt index 21fdddf..fc2cf83 100644 --- a/Documentation/config.txt +++ b/Documentation/config.txt @@ -2898,6 +2898,11 @@ is omitted from the advertisements but `refs/heads/master` and `refs/namespaces/bar/refs/heads/master` are still advertised as so-called "have" lines. In order to match refs before stripping, add a `^` in front of the ref name. If you combine `!` and `^`, `!` must be specified first. ++ +Even if you hide refs, a client may still be able to steal the target +objects via the techniques described in the "SECURITY" section of the +linkgit:gitnamespaces[7] man page; it's best to keep private data in a +separate repository. transfer.unpackLimit:: When `fetch.unpackLimit` or `receive.unpackLimit` are @@ -2907,7 +2912,7 @@ transfer.unpackLimit:: uploadarchive.allowUnreachable:: If true, allow clients to use `git archive --remote` to request any tree, whether reachable from the ref tips or not. See the - discussion in the `SECURITY` section of + discussion in the "SECURITY" section of linkgit:git-upload-archive[1] for more details. Defaults to `false`. @@ -2921,13 +2926,19 @@ uploadpack.allowTipSHA1InWant:: When `uploadpack.hideRefs` is in effect, allow `upload-pack` to accept a fetch request that asks for an object at the tip of a hidden ref (by default, such a request is rejected). - see also `uploadpack.hideRefs`. + See also `uploadpack.hideRefs`. Even if this is false, a client + may be able to steal objects via the techniques described in the + "SECURITY" section of the linkgit:gitnamespaces[7] man page; it's + best to keep private data in a separate repository. uploadpack.allowReachableSHA1InWant:: Allow `upload-pack` to accept a fetch request that asks for an object that is reachable from any ref tip. However, note that calculating object reachability is computationally expensive. - Defaults to `false`. + Defaults to `false`. Even if this is false, a client may be able + to steal objects via the techniques described in the "SECURITY" + section of the linkgit:gitnamespaces[7] man page; it's best to + keep private data in a separate repository. uploadpack.keepAlive:: When `upload-pack` has started `pack-objects`, there may be a diff --git a/Documentation/git-fetch.txt b/Documentation/git-fetch.txt index 9e42169..b153aef 100644 --- a/Documentation/git-fetch.txt +++ b/Documentation/git-fetch.txt @@ -192,6 +192,8 @@ The first command fetches the `maint` branch from the repository at objects will eventually be removed by git's built-in housekeeping (see linkgit:git-gc[1]). +include::transfer-data-leaks.txt[] + BUGS ---- Using --recurse-submodules can only fetch new commits in already checked diff --git a/Documentation/git-pull.txt b/Documentation/git-pull.txt index d033b25..4470e4b 100644 --- a/Documentation/git-pull.txt +++ b/Documentation/git-pull.txt @@ -237,6 +237,8 @@ If you tried a pull which resulted in complex conflicts and would want to start over, you can recover with 'git reset'. +include::transfer-data-leaks.txt[] + BUGS ---- Using --recurse-submodules can only fetch new commits in already checked diff --git a/Documentation/git-push.txt b/Documentation/git-push.txt index 47b77e6..8eefabd 100644 --- a/Documentation/git-push.txt +++ b/Documentation/git-push.txt @@ -559,6 +559,8 @@ Commits A and B would no longer belong to a branch with a symbolic name, and so would be unreachable. As such, these commits would be removed by a `git gc` command on the origin repository. +include::transfer-data-leaks.txt[] + GIT --- Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite diff --git a/Documentation/gitnamespaces.txt b/Documentation/gitnamespaces.txt index 7685e36..b614969 100644 --- a/Documentation/gitnamespaces.txt +++ b/Documentation/gitnamespaces.txt @@ -61,22 +61,4 @@ For a simple local test, you can use linkgit:git-remote-ext[1]: git clone ext::'git --namespace=foo %s /tmp/prefixed.git' ---------- -SECURITY --------- - -Anyone with access to any namespace within a repository can potentially -access objects from any other namespace stored in the same repository. -You can't directly say "give me object ABCD" if you don't have a ref to -it, but you can do some other sneaky things like: - -. Claiming to push ABCD, at which point the server will optimize out the - need for you to actually send it. Now you have a ref to ABCD and can - fetch it (claiming not to have it, of course). - -. Requesting other refs, claiming that you have ABCD, at which point the - server may generate deltas against ABCD. - -None of this causes a problem if you only host public repositories, or -if everyone who may read one namespace may also read everything in every -other namespace (for instance, if everyone in an organization has read -permission to every repository). +include::transfer-data-leaks.txt[] diff --git a/Documentation/transfer-data-leaks.txt b/Documentation/transfer-data-leaks.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..914bacc --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/transfer-data-leaks.txt @@ -0,0 +1,30 @@ +SECURITY +-------- +The fetch and push protocols are not designed to prevent one side from +stealing data from the other repository that was not intended to be +shared. If you have private data that you need to protect from a malicious +peer, your best option is to store it in another repository. This applies +to both clients and servers. In particular, namespaces on a server are not +effective for read access control; you should only grant read access to a +namespace to clients that you would trust with read access to the entire +repository. + +The known attack vectors are as follows: + +. The victim sends "have" lines advertising the IDs of objects it has that + are not explicitly intended to be shared but can be used to optimize the + transfer if the peer also has them. The attacker chooses an object ID X + to steal and sends a ref to X, but isn't required to send the content of + X because the victim already has it. Now the victim believes that the + attacker has X, and it sends the content of X back to the attacker + later. (This attack is most straightforward for a client to perform on a + server, by creating a ref to X in the namespace the client has access + to and then fetching it. The most likely way for a server to perform it + on a client is to "merge" X into a public branch and hope that the user + does additional work on this branch and pushes it back to the server + without noticing the merge.) + +. As in #1, the attacker chooses an object ID X to steal. The victim sends + an object Y that the attacker already has, and the attacker falsely + claims to have X and not Y, so the victim sends Y as a delta against X. + The delta reveals regions of X that are similar to Y to the attacker. -- 2.7.4