Executive brief
Gitea is a self-hosted Git repository management platform that supports mirroring repositories from external sources. When administrators configure special network protections (such as authentication requirements, proxy rules, or certificate validation) for migrating repositories, those protections are intended to apply to all data transfers. However, Git Large File Storage (LFS) operations during mirror pushes and syncs were bypassing these protections, potentially allowing attackers to exfiltrate data or inject malicious content through unprotected channels.
Technical details
The vulnerability is an access control bypass (CWE-284) in Gitea's LFS mirror operations. The root cause is that LFS push and sync operations during mirror migrations were using the default HTTP client instead of the configured migration HTTP transport, which is designed to enforce authentication, proxy settings, and certificate validation policies. This affects all Gitea versions before 1.25.5. The attack vector is network-based and requires no privileges or user interaction—an attacker can exploit this by initiating a mirror operation that triggers LFS transfers. The impact is high across confidentiality, integrity, and availability: attackers can intercept or manipulate LFS data transfers, bypass security policies, and potentially access sensitive repository content. The fix, implemented in version 1.25.5, applies the migration HTTP transport configuration to LFS client operations during mirror push and sync operations.
Affected products
- Gitea Gitea < 1.25.5
Timeline
- 2026-07-03: disclosed: Published to GitHub Advisory Database and NVD
- 2026-03-16: patched: Fixed in Gitea 1.25.5 release