Disallow dubiously-nested submodule git directories

Currently it is technically possible to let a submodule's git
directory point right into the git dir of a sibling submodule.

Example: the git directories of two submodules with the names `hippo`
and `hippo/hooks` would be `.git/modules/hippo/` and
`.git/modules/hippo/hooks/`, respectively, but the latter is already
intended to house the former's hooks.

In most cases, this is just confusing, but there is also a (quite
contrived) attack vector where Git can be fooled into mistaking remote
content for file contents it wrote itself during a recursive clone.

Let's plug this bug.

To do so, we introduce the new function `validate_submodule_git_dir()`
which simply verifies that no git dir exists for any leading directories
of the submodule name (if there are any).

Note: this patch specifically continues to allow sibling modules names
of the form `core/lib`, `core/doc`, etc, as long as `core` is not a
submodule name.

This fixes CVE-2019-1387.

Reported-by: Nicolas Joly <Nicolas.Joly@microsoft.com>
Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>

4 files changed, 79 insertions, 2 deletions

diff --git a/builtin/submodule--helper.c b/builtin/submodule--helper.c
index 79156fac45..3376b1bb29 100644
--- a/builtin/submodule--helper.c
+++ b/builtin/submodule--helper.c
@@ -678,6 +678,10 @@ static int module_clone(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 	} else
 		path = xstrdup(path);
 
+	if (validate_submodule_git_dir(sm_gitdir, name) < 0)
+		die(_("refusing to create/use '%s' in another submodule's "
+			"git dir"), sm_gitdir);
+
 	if (!file_exists(sm_gitdir)) {
 		if (safe_create_leading_directories_const(sm_gitdir) < 0)
 			die(_("could not create directory '%s'"), sm_gitdir);
diff --git a/submodule.c b/submodule.c
index 36f45f5a5a..9abc90d9cd 100644
--- a/submodule.c
+++ b/submodule.c
@@ -1842,6 +1842,47 @@ int parallel_submodules(void)
 	return parallel_jobs;
 }
 
+int validate_submodule_git_dir(char *git_dir, const char *submodule_name)
+{
+	size_t len = strlen(git_dir), suffix_len = strlen(submodule_name);
+	char *p;
+	int ret = 0;
+
+	if (len <= suffix_len || (p = git_dir + len - suffix_len)[-1] != '/' ||
+	    strcmp(p, submodule_name))
+		BUG("submodule name '%s' not a suffix of git dir '%s'",
+		    submodule_name, git_dir);
+
+	/*
+	 * We prevent the contents of sibling submodules' git directories to
+	 * clash.
+	 *
+	 * Example: having a submodule named `hippo` and another one named
+	 * `hippo/hooks` would result in the git directories
+	 * `.git/modules/hippo/` and `.git/modules/hippo/hooks/`, respectively,
+	 * but the latter directory is already designated to contain the hooks
+	 * of the former.
+	 */
+	for (; *p; p++) {
+		if (is_dir_sep(*p)) {
+			char c = *p;
+
+			*p = '\0';
+			if (is_git_directory(git_dir))
+				ret = -1;
+			*p = c;
+
+			if (ret < 0)
+				return error(_("submodule git dir '%s' is "
+					       "inside git dir '%.*s'"),
+					     git_dir,
+					     (int)(p - git_dir), git_dir);
+		}
+	}
+
+	return 0;
+}
+
 /*
  * Embeds a single submodules git directory into the superprojects git dir,
  * non recursively.
@@ -1850,7 +1891,7 @@ static void relocate_single_git_dir_into_superproject(const char *prefix,
 						      const char *path)
 {
 	char *old_git_dir = NULL, *real_old_git_dir = NULL, *real_new_git_dir = NULL;
-	const char *new_git_dir;
+	char *new_git_dir;
 	const struct submodule *sub;
 
 	if (submodule_uses_worktrees(path))
@@ -1868,10 +1909,14 @@ static void relocate_single_git_dir_into_superproject(const char *prefix,
 	if (!sub)
 		die(_("could not lookup name for submodule '%s'"), path);
 
-	new_git_dir = git_path("modules/%s", sub->name);
+	new_git_dir = git_pathdup("modules/%s", sub->name);
+	if (validate_submodule_git_dir(new_git_dir, sub->name) < 0)
+		die(_("refusing to move '%s' into an existing git dir"),
+		    real_old_git_dir);
 	if (safe_create_leading_directories_const(new_git_dir) < 0)
 		die(_("could not create directory '%s'"), new_git_dir);
 	real_new_git_dir = real_pathdup(new_git_dir, 1);
+	free(new_git_dir);
 
 	fprintf(stderr, _("Migrating git directory of '%s%s' from\n'%s' to\n'%s'\n"),
 		get_super_prefix_or_empty(), path,
diff --git a/submodule.h b/submodule.h
index 3c239d1ecf..cb1ab07b9a 100644
--- a/submodule.h
+++ b/submodule.h
@@ -120,6 +120,11 @@ extern int parallel_submodules(void);
  */
 int submodule_to_gitdir(struct strbuf *buf, const char *submodule);
 
+/*
+ * Make sure that no submodule's git dir is nested in a sibling submodule's.
+ */
+int validate_submodule_git_dir(char *git_dir, const char *submodule_name);
+
 #define SUBMODULE_MOVE_HEAD_DRY_RUN (1<<0)
 #define SUBMODULE_MOVE_HEAD_FORCE   (1<<1)
 extern int submodule_move_head(const char *path,
diff --git a/t/t7415-submodule-names.sh b/t/t7415-submodule-names.sh
index 7c65e7a35c..8bd3d0937d 100755
--- a/t/t7415-submodule-names.sh
+++ b/t/t7415-submodule-names.sh
@@ -106,4 +106,27 @@ test_expect_success MINGW 'prevent git~1 squatting on Windows' '
 	! grep gitdir squatting-clone/d/a/git~2
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'git dirs of sibling submodules must not be nested' '
+	git init nested &&
+	test_commit -C nested nested &&
+	(
+		cd nested &&
+		cat >.gitmodules <<-EOF &&
+		[submodule "hippo"]
+			url = .
+			path = thing1
+		[submodule "hippo/hooks"]
+			url = .
+			path = thing2
+		EOF
+		git clone . thing1 &&
+		git clone . thing2 &&
+		git add .gitmodules thing1 thing2 &&
+		test_tick &&
+		git commit -m nested
+	) &&
+	test_must_fail git clone --recurse-submodules nested clone 2>err &&
+	test_i18ngrep "is inside git dir" err
+'
+
 test_done