CVE-2018-10379 in Community Edition
Summary
by MITRE
An issue was discovered in GitLab Community Edition (CE) and Enterprise Edition (EE) before 10.5.8, 10.6.x before 10.6.5, and 10.7.x before 10.7.2. The Move Issue feature contained a persistent XSS vulnerability.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/10/2020
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2018-10379 represents a critical persistent cross-site scripting flaw within GitLab's issue management functionality. This security weakness affected multiple versions of both Community and Enterprise editions, specifically targeting releases prior to 10.5.8, 10.6.5, and 10.7.2 respectively. The vulnerability manifests through the Move Issue feature, which allows users to relocate issues between different projects or groups within the GitLab platform. The flaw enables attackers to inject malicious scripts that persist in the system, making it particularly dangerous as the malicious code can affect multiple users who interact with the affected issues.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from inadequate input validation and output encoding within the Move Issue functionality. When users attempt to move issues between projects, the system fails to properly sanitize user-supplied data that may contain malicious script content. This occurs because the application does not adequately escape or filter special characters and script tags that could be embedded in issue titles, descriptions, or other metadata fields. The persistent nature of the vulnerability means that once malicious content is injected, it remains stored within the GitLab database and executes every time affected users view the relevant issue pages, creating a vector for widespread exploitation.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple script execution, as it provides attackers with significant privileges within the GitLab environment. According to CWE-79 standards for cross-site scripting, this vulnerability allows attackers to execute arbitrary JavaScript in the context of the victim's browser, potentially leading to session hijacking, data exfiltration, or privilege escalation. The ATT&CK framework categorizes this as a technique for code injection and credential access, as malicious scripts could capture user credentials or manipulate the GitLab interface to hide malicious activities. In practice, attackers could leverage this vulnerability to create backdoor access to repositories, modify project configurations, or gain unauthorized access to sensitive development information.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability require immediate patching of affected GitLab installations to versions 10.5.8, 10.6.5, or 10.7.2, depending on the specific edition and version in use. Organizations should also implement additional defensive measures including web application firewalls that can detect and block known XSS patterns, regular security scanning of GitLab installations, and user education regarding the dangers of interacting with untrusted issue content. The vulnerability highlights the importance of input validation and output encoding practices as outlined in the OWASP Top Ten security principles, particularly in web applications handling user-generated content. Security teams should also conduct thorough audits of all GitLab features that accept user input to ensure similar vulnerabilities do not exist in other parts of the platform, as the Move Issue functionality represents just one potential vector for such attacks.