Critical Gitea vulnerability now exploited in the wild (CVE-2026-60004)
Attackers are actively exploiting critical Gitea RCE CVE-2026-60004 via the diffpatch endpoint, prompting CISA KEV addition and at least one cryptomining compromise.
CISA added CVE-2026-60004, a critical code injection flaw in Gitea's diffpatch endpoint, to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog after in-the-wild attacks. An attacker with repository write access, or an unauthenticated visitor on instances with open registration, can execute arbitrary shell commands as the Gitea OS user. A disclosed incident saw an automated scanner register an account and deploy a loader and cryptominer inside a Docker container within about 11 seconds, with no persistence mechanism found. Gitea patched the flaw in v1.27.1, and CISA ordered US federal civilian agencies to update by August 28, 2026.
Hackers Actively Exploiting Gitea n-day RCE Vulnerability in the Wild to Hijack Instances
Chinese-speaking Red Heron actors mass-exploit Gitea n-day RCE CVE-2026-60004 to steal source code, credentials, and pivot into victim networks.
Acronis Threat Research Unit reports active in-the-wild exploitation of Gitea RCE CVE-2026-60004 (CVSS 9.8, versions 1.17-1.27.0, fixed in 1.27.1) by a Chinese-speaking actor dubbed Red Heron. The actor scanned 1,386 Gitea servers across seven countries, held a separate list of 477 Taiwan-based targets, and confirmed victims in Canada, Argentina, Taiwan, the US, and Sri Lanka. Intrusions deployed the JITTERLY Linux implant with the SIXZUT LD_PRELOAD rootkit, stole password hashes and SSH keys, and in one case gained root admin access to a three-node Proxmox cluster.
Gitea security advisory (AV26-845)
CISA added CVE-2026-60004, an actively exploited RCE via diffpatch Git hook installation in Gitea, to the KEV catalog; users should upgrade past 1.27.1.
Canadian Centre for Cyber Security advisory AV26-845 reports that Gitea versions prior to 1.27.1 are affected by CVE-2026-60004, remote code execution via diffpatch Git hook installation. CISA added the vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on August 25, 2026, indicating observed exploitation. Fixed releases 1.27.1 and 1.27.2 are available, and administrators should upgrade promptly.
U.S. CISA adds Gitea flaw to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog
CISA added the actively exploited Gitea RCE flaw CVE-2026-60004 (CVSS 9.8) to its KEV catalog, with federal patching due by August 28, 2026.
CISA added CVE-2026-60004, a critical remote code execution flaw in Gitea (CVSS 9.8), to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. The flaw affects Gitea versions since 1.17, fixed in 1.27.1, and lets attackers with repository write access execute shell commands via the diffpatch API and Git hooks. Open registration allows unauthenticated attackers to create accounts and exploit exposed instances, with a reported attack deploying a cryptocurrency-miner-like payload.
Critical Gitea RCE Actively Exploited as Reported Attack Drops Miner
CISA added actively exploited Gitea RCE CVE-2026-60004 (CVSS 9.8) to the KEV catalog as attackers deploy a cryptojacking dropper.
CVE-2026-60004 is a critical remote code execution flaw affecting Gitea versions 1.17 through 1.27.0, abused via the diffpatch endpoint to install a Git hook and execute shell commands as the Gitea OS user. Default open registration lets unauthenticated attackers obtain the required repository write access. CISA added the flaw to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, giving federal agencies until August 28, 2026 to patch; version 1.27.1 fixes it. A developer reported their HOSTKEY-hosted VPS was exploited to run a miner-like dropper, driving CPU usage above 70% and killing competing processes.