When Gitea's built-in SSH server is enabled (`START_SSH_SERVER = true`), the presented public key was looked up with an SQL `LIKE` comparison of its encoded content, which is case-insensitive on some databases, including the default SQLite. An attacker who can construct a case variant of another user's registered RSA public key for which they can derive the private key could have that key matched to the victim's account and authenticate over SSH as that user. Keys are now looked up by fingerprint.
History

Fri, 16 Oct 2026 12:30:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Weaknesses CWE-178
References
Metrics threat_severity

None

threat_severity

Important


Thu, 15 Oct 2026 02:45:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
CPEs cpe:2.3:a:gitea:gitea:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

Wed, 07 Oct 2026 17:30:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Weaknesses CWE-287

Wed, 07 Oct 2026 15:30:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Weaknesses CWE-305
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 9.1, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N'}

ssvc

{'options': {'Automatable': 'yes', 'Exploitation': 'none', 'Technical Impact': 'total'}, 'version': '2.0.3'}


Tue, 06 Oct 2026 23:30:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Gitea
Gitea gitea
Vendors & Products Gitea
Gitea gitea

Tue, 06 Oct 2026 21:15:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Weaknesses CWE-287

Tue, 06 Oct 2026 19:30:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description When Gitea's built-in SSH server is enabled (`START_SSH_SERVER = true`), the presented public key was looked up with an SQL `LIKE` comparison of its encoded content, which is case-insensitive on some databases, including the default SQLite. An attacker who can construct a case variant of another user's registered RSA public key for which they can derive the private key could have that key matched to the victim's account and authenticate over SSH as that user. Keys are now looked up by fingerprint.
Title Gitea built-in SSH server authentication bypass through key case folding
References

cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: Gitea

Published: 2026-10-06T19:22:57.192Z

Updated: 2026-10-07T14:17:20.596Z

Reserved: 2026-10-04T21:57:35.559Z

Link: CVE-2026-103059

cve-icon Vulnrichment

Updated: 2026-10-07T14:16:38.441Z

cve-icon NVD

Status : Analyzed

Published: 2026-10-06T20:17:14.377

Modified: 2026-10-15T02:26:26.567

Link: CVE-2026-103059

cve-icon Redhat

Severity : Important

Publid Date: 2026-10-06T19:22:57Z

Links: CVE-2026-103059 - Bugzilla