git-am applies commit message diffs

4 min read Original article ↗
From: Matthias Beyer <mail@beyermatthias.de>
To: git@vger.kernel.org
Subject: git-am applies commit message diffs
Date: Fri, 6 Feb 2026 08:43:56 +0100	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <bcqvh7ahjjgzpgxwnr4kh3hfkksfruf54refyry3ha7qk7dldf@fij5calmscvm> (raw)

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Hi,

I am not sure whether this was already reported, searching the lore did
not yield anything for me, but I might have overlooked it...

This was just posted on mastodon[0]:

    PSA: Did you know that it’s **unsafe** to put code diffs into your commit messages?

    Like https://
    github.com/i3/i3/pull/6564 for example

    Such diffs will be applied by patch(1) (also git-am(1)) as part of the code change!

    This is how a sleep(1) made it into i3 4.25-2 in Debian unstable.

TL;DR: If you put a diff in the commit message, that diff will be
applied by git-am.

This looks clearly like unintended and might be an attack-vector, right?

Best,
Matthias

[0]: https://mas.to/@zekjur/116022397626943871

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             reply	other threads:[~2026-02-06  7:50 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 65+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2026-02-06  7:43 Matthias Beyer [this message]
2026-02-06  8:04 ` git-am applies commit message diffs Jacob Keller
2026-02-06  8:18   ` Matthias Beyer
2026-02-06  9:03     ` Jeff King
2026-02-07 14:57       ` [PATCH 0/3] commit-msg.sample: reject messages that would confuse "git am" Phillip Wood
2026-02-07 14:58         ` [PATCH 1/3] templates: add .gitattributes entry for sample hooks Phillip Wood
2026-02-07 14:58         ` [PATCH 2/3] templates: detect commit messages containing diffs Phillip Wood
2026-02-07 14:58         ` [PATCH 3/3] templates: detect messages that contain a separator line Phillip Wood
2026-02-07 21:27           ` Junio C Hamano
2026-02-07 21:38             ` Kristoffer Haugsbakk
2026-02-09  0:17               ` Junio C Hamano
2026-02-09  7:00             ` Jeff King
2026-02-09 10:42               ` Phillip Wood
2026-02-10  6:44                 ` Jeff King
2026-02-09  6:57         ` [PATCH 0/3] commit-msg.sample: reject messages that would confuse "git am" Jeff King
2026-02-09 10:43           ` Phillip Wood
2026-02-09 11:07             ` Matthias Beyer
2026-02-10  6:46             ` Jeff King
2026-02-09 15:58       ` git-am applies commit message diffs Patrick Steinhardt
2026-02-10  2:16         ` Jacob Keller
2026-02-10 14:22           ` Patrick Steinhardt
2026-02-10 15:47             ` Junio C Hamano
2026-02-11  2:31               ` Jacob Keller
2026-02-11  2:34                 ` Jacob Keller
2026-02-11  7:47                   ` Jeff King
2026-02-11 15:23                     ` Kristoffer Haugsbakk
2026-02-11 15:47                     ` Junio C Hamano
2026-02-10  6:56         ` Jeff King
2026-02-13 14:34       ` [PATCH v2 0/2] commit-msg.sample: reject messages that would confuse "git am" Phillip Wood
2026-02-13 14:34         ` [PATCH v2 1/2] templates: add .gitattributes entry for sample hooks Phillip Wood
2026-02-13 14:34         ` [PATCH v2 2/2] templates: detect commit messages containing diffs Phillip Wood
2026-02-13 16:42           ` Kristoffer Haugsbakk
2026-02-13 18:08             ` Junio C Hamano
2026-02-14 14:46             ` Phillip Wood
2026-02-13 17:59           ` Junio C Hamano
2026-02-14 14:36             ` Phillip Wood
2026-02-14 15:42               ` Junio C Hamano
2026-02-13 17:41         ` [PATCH v2 0/2] commit-msg.sample: reject messages that would confuse "git am" Junio C Hamano
2026-02-06  8:59   ` git-am applies commit message diffs Florian Weimer
2026-02-06  9:24     ` Jeff King
2026-02-06  9:48       ` Florian Weimer
2026-02-06 10:08         ` Jeff King
2026-02-06  8:43 ` Kristoffer Haugsbakk
2026-02-06 17:45   ` Jakob Haufe
2026-02-07 10:08     ` Kristoffer Haugsbakk
2026-02-07 21:44 ` Kristoffer Haugsbakk
2026-02-08  0:11 ` [PATCH] doc: add caveat about roundtripping format-patch kristofferhaugsbakk
2026-02-08  1:39   ` Junio C Hamano
2026-02-08 17:18     ` Kristoffer Haugsbakk
2026-02-09 16:42   ` Phillip Wood
2026-02-09 17:59     ` Kristoffer Haugsbakk
2026-02-10 10:57       ` Phillip Wood
2026-02-10 16:00         ` Kristoffer Haugsbakk
2026-02-09 22:37   ` [PATCH v2] " kristofferhaugsbakk
2026-02-09 22:59     ` Junio C Hamano
2026-02-09 23:11       ` Kristoffer Haugsbakk
2026-02-10 11:02     ` Phillip Wood
2026-02-10 18:20     ` Kristoffer Haugsbakk
2026-02-12 22:28     ` [PATCH v3] doc: add caveat about round-tripping format-patch kristofferhaugsbakk
2026-02-12 23:19       ` Junio C Hamano
2026-02-13 14:41         ` Phillip Wood
2026-02-13 14:43           ` Kristoffer Haugsbakk
2026-02-13 18:02           ` Junio C Hamano
2026-02-10  0:53   ` [PATCH] doc: add caveat about roundtripping format-patch Christoph Anton Mitterer
2026-02-10 16:00     ` Kristoffer Haugsbakk

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