Quantum Secular Labs / Blog / Advisories

CVE-2023-7028: GitLab Community and Enterprise Editions Improper Access Control Vulnerability

CVE-2023-7028 is rated critical with a CVSS v3.1 base score of 9.8 and affects GitLab GitLab CE/EE. Per its scoring, it can be exploited over the network, without authentication, without any user interaction. The scored impact on confidentiality, integrity and availability is the highest available. CISA added it to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2024-05-01, which means exploitation in the wild has been observed.

Vulnerability description

An issue has been discovered in GitLab CE/EE affecting all versions from 16.1 prior to 16.1.6, 16.2 prior to 16.2.9, 16.3 prior to 16.3.7, 16.4 prior to 16.4.5, 16.5 prior to 16.5.6, 16.6 prior to 16.6.4, and 16.7 prior to 16.7.2 in which user account password reset emails could be delivered to an unverified email address.

Severity breakdown

CVSS v3.1 9.8: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

  • Attack vector: Network. Exploitable remotely over the network, with no need for local or physical access.
  • Attack complexity: Low. No special conditions; the attack can be repeated reliably.
  • Privileges required: None. No account or prior access is needed.
  • User interaction: None. No action from any user is needed.
  • Scope: Unchanged. Impact stays within the vulnerable component.
  • Confidentiality impact: High. Total loss of confidentiality; sensitive data can be fully disclosed.
  • Integrity impact: High. Total loss of integrity; data or system state can be fully modified.
  • Availability impact: High. Total loss of availability; the component can be shut down.

Underlying weakness

CWE-640: Weak Password Recovery Mechanism for Forgotten Password

The product contains a mechanism for users to recover or change their passwords without knowing the original password, but the mechanism is weak.

Affected products

  • GitLab: from 16.1.0 before 16.1.6; from 16.2.0 before 16.2.9; from 16.3.0 before 16.3.7; from 16.4.0 before 16.4.5; from 16.5.0 before 16.5.6; from 16.6.0 before 16.6.4; from 16.7.0 before 16.7.2

References