CVE-2021-39159
Remote code execution in Binderhub
BinderHub is a kubernetes-based cloud service that allows users to share reproducible interactive computing environments from code repositories. In affected versions a remote code execution vulnerability has been identified in BinderHub, where providing BinderHub with maliciously crafted input could execute code in the BinderHub context, with the potential to egress credentials of the BinderHub deployment, including JupyterHub API tokens, kubernetes service accounts, and docker registry credentials. This may provide the ability to manipulate images and other user created pods in the deployment, with the potential to escalate to the host depending on the underlying kubernetes configuration. Users are advised to update to version 0.2.0-n653. If users are unable to update they may disable the git repo provider by specifying the BinderHub.repo_providers as a workaround.
Attack profile
How easy it is to exploit
- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges needed
- None
- User interaction
- Required
What an attacker can affect
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
Exploit likelihood
What each source reports
CVE List Score used
9.6
Remote code execution in Binderhub
BinderHub is a kubernetes-based cloud service that allows users to share reproducible interactive computing environments from code repositories. In affected versions a remote code execution vulnerability has been identified in BinderHub, where providing BinderHub with maliciously crafted input could execute code in the BinderHub context, with the potential to egress credentials of the BinderHub deployment, including JupyterHub API tokens, kubernetes service accounts, and docker registry credentials. This may provide the ability to manipulate images and other user created pods in the deployment, with the potential to escalate to the host depending on the underlying kubernetes configuration. Users are advised to update to version 0.2.0-n653. If users are unable to update they may disable the git repo provider by specifying the BinderHub.repo_providers as a workaround.
- Record
CVE-2021-39159- CVSS 3.1
- 9.6 Critical
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H - Weakness
- CWE-94
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
EUVDEUVD-2021-0035
9.6
BinderHub is a kubernetes-based cloud service that allows users to share reproducible interactive computing environments from code repositories. In affected versions a remote code execution vulnerability has been identified in BinderHub, where providing BinderHub with maliciously crafted input could execute code in the BinderHub context, with the potential to egress credentials of the BinderHub deployment, including JupyterHub API tokens, kubernetes service accounts, and docker registry credentials. This may provide the ability to manipulate images and other user created pods in the deployment, with the potential to escalate to the host depending on the underlying kubernetes configuration. Users are advised to update to version 0.2.0-n653. If users are unable to update they may disable the git repo provider by specifying the BinderHub.repo_providers as a workaround.
- Record
EUVD-2021-0035- CVSS 3.1
- 9.6 Critical
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H - Updated
- 2026-11-03
GitHub AdvisoriesGHSA-9jjr-qqfp-ppwx
9.4
remote code execution via git repo provider
Impact
A remote code execution vulnerability has been identified in BinderHub, where providing BinderHub with maliciously crafted input could execute code in the BinderHub context, with the potential to egress credentials of the BinderHub deployment, including JupyterHub API tokens, kubernetes service accounts, and docker registry credentials. This may provide the ability to manipulate images and other user created pods in the deployment, with the potential to escalate to the host depending on the underlying kubernetes configuration.
Patches
Patch below, or on GitHub
From 9f4043d9dddc1174920e687773f27b7933f48ab6 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Riccardo Castellotti <[email protected]>
Date: Thu, 19 Aug 2021 15:49:43 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] Explicitly separate git-ls-remote options from positional
arguments
---
binderhub/repoproviders.py | 2 +-
1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
diff --git a/binderhub/repoproviders.py b/binderhub/repoproviders.py
index f33347b..5d4b87c 100755
--- a/binderhub/repoproviders.py
+++ b/binderhub/repoproviders.py
@@ -484,7 +484,7 @@ class GitRepoProvider(RepoProvider):
self.sha1_validate(self.unresolved_ref)
except ValueError:
# The ref is a head/tag and we resolve it using `git ls-remote`
- command = ["git", "ls-remote", self.repo, self.unresolved_ref]
+ command = ["git", "ls-remote", "--", self.repo, self.unresolved_ref]
result = subprocess.run(command, universal_newlines=True, stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE)
if result.returncode:
raise RuntimeError("Unable to run git ls-remote to get the `resolved_ref`: {}".format(result.stderr))
--
2.25.1
Workarounds
Disable the git repo provider by specifying the BinderHub.repo_providers config, e.g.:
from binderhub.repoproviders import (GitHubRepoProvider,
GitLabRepoProvider, GistRepoProvider,
ZenodoProvider, FigshareProvider, HydroshareProvider,
DataverseProvider)
c.BinderHub.repo_providers = {
'gh': GitHubRepoProvider,
'gist': GistRepoProvider,
'gl': GitLabRepoProvider,
'zenodo': ZenodoProvider,
'figshare': FigshareProvider,
'hydroshare': HydroshareProvider,
'dataverse': DataverseProvider,
}
References
Credit: Jose Carlos Luna Duran (CERN) and Riccardo Castellotti (CERN).
For more information
If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:
- Email us at [email protected]
- Record
GHSA-9jjr-qqfp-ppwx- CVSS 4.0
- 9.4 Critical
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:P/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H - CVSS 3.1
- 9.6 Critical
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H - Weakness
- CWE-78, CWE-94
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
NVD
9.6
BinderHub is a kubernetes-based cloud service that allows users to share reproducible interactive computing environments from code repositories. In affected versions a remote code execution vulnerability has been identified in BinderHub, where providing BinderHub with maliciously crafted input could execute code in the BinderHub context, with the potential to egress credentials of the BinderHub deployment, including JupyterHub API tokens, kubernetes service accounts, and docker registry credentials. This may provide the ability to manipulate images and other user created pods in the deployment, with the potential to escalate to the host depending on the underlying kubernetes configuration. Users are advised to update to version 0.2.0-n653. If users are unable to update they may disable the git repo provider by specifying the BinderHub.repo_providers as a workaround.
- Record
CVE-2021-39159- CVSS 3.1
- 9.6 Critical
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H - CVSS 3.1
- 9.8 Critical
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H - CVSS 2.0
- 7.5 High
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P - Weakness
- CWE-94, CWE-78
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSV
9.8
BinderHub is a kubernetes-based cloud service that allows users to share reproducible interactive computing environments from code repositories. In affected versions a remote code execution vulnerability has been identified in BinderHub, where providing BinderHub with maliciously crafted input could execute code in the BinderHub context, with the potential to egress credentials of the BinderHub deployment, including JupyterHub API tokens, kubernetes service accounts, and docker registry credentials. This may provide the ability to manipulate images and other user created pods in the deployment, with the potential to escalate to the host depending on the underlying kubernetes configuration. Users are advised to update to version 0.2.0-n653. If users are unable to update they may disable the git repo provider by specifying the BinderHub.repo_providers as a workaround.
- Record
CVE-2021-39159- CVSS 3.1
- 9.8 Critical
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H - Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVGHSA-9jjr-qqfp-ppwx
9.4
remote code execution via git repo provider
Impact
A remote code execution vulnerability has been identified in BinderHub, where providing BinderHub with maliciously crafted input could execute code in the BinderHub context, with the potential to egress credentials of the BinderHub deployment, including JupyterHub API tokens, kubernetes service accounts, and docker registry credentials. This may provide the ability to manipulate images and other user created pods in the deployment, with the potential to escalate to the host depending on the underlying kubernetes configuration.
Patches
Patch below, or on GitHub
From 9f4043d9dddc1174920e687773f27b7933f48ab6 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Riccardo Castellotti <[email protected]>
Date: Thu, 19 Aug 2021 15:49:43 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] Explicitly separate git-ls-remote options from positional
arguments
---
binderhub/repoproviders.py | 2 +-
1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
diff --git a/binderhub/repoproviders.py b/binderhub/repoproviders.py
index f33347b..5d4b87c 100755
--- a/binderhub/repoproviders.py
+++ b/binderhub/repoproviders.py
@@ -484,7 +484,7 @@ class GitRepoProvider(RepoProvider):
self.sha1_validate(self.unresolved_ref)
except ValueError:
# The ref is a head/tag and we resolve it using `git ls-remote`
- command = ["git", "ls-remote", self.repo, self.unresolved_ref]
+ command = ["git", "ls-remote", "--", self.repo, self.unresolved_ref]
result = subprocess.run(command, universal_newlines=True, stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE)
if result.returncode:
raise RuntimeError("Unable to run git ls-remote to get the `resolved_ref`: {}".format(result.stderr))
--
2.25.1
Workarounds
Disable the git repo provider by specifying the BinderHub.repo_providers config, e.g.:
from binderhub.repoproviders import (GitHubRepoProvider,
GitLabRepoProvider, GistRepoProvider,
ZenodoProvider, FigshareProvider, HydroshareProvider,
DataverseProvider)
c.BinderHub.repo_providers = {
'gh': GitHubRepoProvider,
'gist': GistRepoProvider,
'gl': GitLabRepoProvider,
'zenodo': ZenodoProvider,
'figshare': FigshareProvider,
'hydroshare': HydroshareProvider,
'dataverse': DataverseProvider,
}
References
Credit: Jose Carlos Luna Duran (CERN) and Riccardo Castellotti (CERN).
For more information
If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:
- Email us at [email protected]
- Record
GHSA-9jjr-qqfp-ppwx- CVSS 4.0
- 9.4 Critical
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:P/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H - CVSS 3.1
- 9.6 Critical
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H - Weakness
- CWE-78, CWE-94
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVPYSEC-2021-371 No score
BinderHub is a kubernetes-based cloud service that allows users to share reproducible interactive computing environments from code repositories. In affected versions a remote code execution vulnerability has been identified in BinderHub, where providing BinderHub with maliciously crafted input could execute code in the BinderHub context, with the potential to egress credentials of the BinderHub deployment, including JupyterHub API tokens, kubernetes service accounts, and docker registry credentials. This may provide the ability to manipulate images and other user created pods in the deployment, with the potential to escalate to the host depending on the underlying kubernetes configuration. Users are advised to update to version 0.2.0-n653. If users are unable to update they may disable the git repo provider by specifying the BinderHub.repo_providers as a workaround.
- Record
PYSEC-2021-371- Updated
- 2026-11-02
Affected products
Affected packages
History
| Recorded | Changed | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| aliases | EUVD | |
| first indexed | CVE List, GitHub Advisories, NVD, OSV |
Dates are when Every CVE recorded each change. Upstream dates may differ.
In short
CVE-2021-39159 is a critical vulnerability (CVSS 9.6) in Jupyter Binderhub, published August 25, 2021. No source lists public exploit code. EPSS puts the chance of exploitation in the next 30 days at 1.93%, the 80th percentile. Fixed in binderhub 0.2.0.
References
github.com/jupyterhub/binderhub/security/advisories/GHSA-9jjr-qqfp-ppwx
github.com/jupyterhub/binderhub/commit/195caac172690456dcdc8cc7a6ca50e05abf8182.patch
nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-39159
github.com/jupyterhub/binderhub/commit/195caac172690456dcdc8cc7a6ca50e05abf8182
github.com/pypa/advisory-database/tree/main/vulns/binderhub/PYSEC-2021-371.yaml
github.com/advisories/GHSA-9jjr-qqfp-ppwx
github.com/jupyterhub/binderhub