On Windows, symbolic links come in two flavors: file symlinks and directory symlinks. Since Git was born on Linux where this distinction does not exist, Git for Windows has to auto-detect the type by looking at the target. When the target does not yet exist at symlink creation time, Git for Windows creates a "phantom" file symlink and later, once checkout is complete, calls `CreateFileW()` on the target to check whether it is actually a directory. If the symlink target is a UNC path (e.g. `\\attacker\share`), this auto-detection triggers an SMB connection to the remote host. Windows performs NTLM authentication by default for such connections, which means a crafted repository can exfiltrate the cloning user's NTLMv2 hash to an attacker-controlled server without any user interaction beyond `git clone -c core.symlinks=true <url>`. There are ways to specify UNC paths that start with only a single backslash (e.g. `\??\UNC\host\share`); All of them do start like that, though, so let's use that as a tell-tale that we should skip the auto-detection in `process_phantom_symlink()`. The symlink is then left as a file symlink (the `mklink` default), and a warning is emitted suggesting the user set the `symlink` gitattribute to `dir` if a directory symlink is needed. When the attribute is already set, auto-detection is never invoked in the first place, so that code path is unaffected. This is the same class of vulnerability as CVE-2025-66413 (https://github.com/git-for-windows/git/security/advisories/GHSA-hv9c-4jm9-jh3x) and follows the same general mitigation pattern that MinTTY adopted for ANSI escape sequences referencing network share paths (https://github.com/mintty/mintty/security/advisories/GHSA-jf4m-m6rv-p6c5). Note that there are legitimate paths starting with a single backslash that are _not_ network paths: drive-less absolute paths are interpreted as relative to the current working directory's drive. In practice, these are highly uncommon (and brittle, just one working directory change away from breaking). In any case, the only consequence is now that the symlink type of those has to be specified via Git attributes, is all. Reported-by: Justin Lee <jessdhoctor@gmail.com> Addresses: CVE-2026-32631 Addresses: https://github.com/git-for-windows/git/security/advisories/GHSA-9j5h-h4m7-85hx Assisted-by: Claude Opus 4.6 Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de>
Git - fast, scalable, distributed revision control system
Git is a fast, scalable, distributed revision control system with an unusually rich command set that provides both high-level operations and full access to internals.
Git is an Open Source project covered by the GNU General Public License version 2 (some parts of it are under different licenses, compatible with the GPLv2). It was originally written by Linus Torvalds with help of a group of hackers around the net.
Please read the file INSTALL for installation instructions.
Many Git online resources are accessible from https://git-scm.com/ including full documentation and Git related tools.
See Documentation/gittutorial.adoc to get started, then see
Documentation/giteveryday.adoc for a useful minimum set of commands, and
Documentation/git-<commandname>.adoc for documentation of each command.
If git has been correctly installed, then the tutorial can also be
read with man gittutorial or git help tutorial, and the
documentation of each command with man git-<commandname> or git help <commandname>.
CVS users may also want to read Documentation/gitcvs-migration.adoc
(man gitcvs-migration or git help cvs-migration if git is
installed).
The user discussion and development of Git take place on the Git mailing list -- everyone is welcome to post bug reports, feature requests, comments and patches to git@vger.kernel.org (read Documentation/SubmittingPatches for instructions on patch submission and Documentation/CodingGuidelines).
Those wishing to help with error message, usage and informational message
string translations (localization l10) should see po/README.md
(a po file is a Portable Object file that holds the translations).
To subscribe to the list, send an email to git+subscribe@vger.kernel.org (see https://subspace.kernel.org/subscribing.html for details). The mailing list archives are available at https://lore.kernel.org/git/, https://marc.info/?l=git and other archival sites.
Issues which are security relevant should be disclosed privately to the Git Security mailing list git-security@googlegroups.com.
The maintainer frequently sends the "What's cooking" reports that list the current status of various development topics to the mailing list. The discussion following them give a good reference for project status, development direction and remaining tasks.
The name "git" was given by Linus Torvalds when he wrote the very first version. He described the tool as "the stupid content tracker" and the name as (depending on your mood):
- random three-letter combination that is pronounceable, and not actually used by any common UNIX command. The fact that it is a mispronunciation of "get" may or may not be relevant.
- stupid. contemptible and despicable. simple. Take your pick from the dictionary of slang.
- "global information tracker": you're in a good mood, and it actually works for you. Angels sing, and a light suddenly fills the room.
- "goddamn idiotic truckload of sh*t": when it breaks