CVE-2026-5921: Server-Side Request Forgery in GitHub Enterprise Server allowed extraction of sensitive environment variables via timing side-channel attack
Description
A server-side request forgery (SSRF) vulnerability was identified in GitHub Enterprise Server that allowed an attacker to extract sensitive environment variables from the instance through a timing side-channel attack against the notebook rendering service. When private mode was disabled, the notebook viewer followed HTTP redirects without revalidating the destination host, enabling an unauthenticated SSRF to internal services. By chaining this with regex filter queries against an internal API and measuring response time differences, an attacker could infer secret values character by character. Exploitation required that private mode be disabled and that the attacker be able to chain the instance's open redirect endpoint through an external redirect to reach internal services. This vulnerability affected all versions of GitHub Enterprise Server prior to 3.21 and was fixed in versions 3.14.26, 3.15.21, 3.16.17, 3.17.14, 3.18.8, 3.19.5, and 3.20.1. This vulnerability was reported via the GitHub Bug Bounty program.
Vector CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:L · CWE-918
Tracked companies
Mapped from the CVE’s affected-product data, NVD CPE matches, vendor advisories or package feeds. A mapping means the vendor’s software is named, not that its hosted service was exposed.
Status incidents that name it
No tracked status incident names this CVE.
Affected vendors and products
GitHub: Enterprise Server
References
- CVE record on cve.org (opens in new tab)
- NVD entry (opens in new tab)
- docs.github.com/en/enterprise-server@3.14/admin/release-notes (opens in new tab)
- docs.github.com/en/enterprise-server@3.15/admin/release-notes (opens in new tab)
- docs.github.com/en/enterprise-server@3.16/admin/release-notes (opens in new tab)
- docs.github.com/en/enterprise-server@3.17/admin/release-notes (opens in new tab)
- docs.github.com/en/enterprise-server@3.18/admin/release-notes (opens in new tab)
- docs.github.com/en/enterprise-server@3.19/admin/release-notes (opens in new tab)
- docs.github.com/en/enterprise-server@3.20/admin/release-notes (opens in new tab)
- CVE records from the CVE Program (cve.org). CVE® is a registered trademark of The MITRE Corporation. (opens in new tab)
- This product uses data from the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. (opens in new tab)
- Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog from CISA. (opens in new tab)
- EPSS scores from FIRST (Exploit Prediction Scoring System). (opens in new tab)