Question: Setting the Email Address in ~/.gitconfig

[Shreya Malviya <shreya.malviya@gmail.com>]

Hi!


I was playing around with git when I realized that it's possible for
me to commit something to a repository as another user (explained a
scenario below for a better understanding of what I mean) and it is
not considered a security vulnerability, understandably so
(https://bounty.github.com/ineligible.html#impersonating_a_user_through_git_email_address).

For example, let's assume I have push access to some repository called
AAA, and my email address is abc@xyz.com. I can simply edit
~/.gitconfig on my system and set the email address as some other
person's email address: def@pqr.com. Then, I make some changes in my
local repository and commit them (reminder: it's with the email
address def@pqr.com since git tracks commits by email address). Now,
if I try to push to the remote repository, it asks for the username
and password. I put mine and since I have push access to AAA, it goes
through. I've successfully pushed commits on behalf of the owner of
the email address: def@pqr.com.

So basically, in this way, I can impersonate people and add commits on
their behalf. BUT AGAIN, this is not considered a vulnerability (link
for reason attached before).

My question:
It would be much easier if git didn't allow changing the email address
so easily. Why hasn't git implemented OAuth, or something of that
sort, for every time that the email address is changed in
~/.gitconfig, yet?


Shreya Malviya