CVE-2018-15192 in Gitea
Summary
by MITRE
An SSRF vulnerability in webhooks in Gitea through 1.5.0-rc2 and Gogs through 0.11.53 allows remote attackers to access intranet services.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 05/01/2023
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2018-15192 represents a critical server-side request forgery flaw that affects both Gitea and Gogs web applications. This issue manifests within the webhook functionality of these platforms, creating a pathway for remote attackers to bypass normal network security controls and access internal services that would typically be protected from external exposure. The vulnerability exists in versions through 1.5.0-rc2 for Gitea and 0.11.53 for Gogs, indicating a widespread impact across multiple releases of these popular Git hosting solutions.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from insufficient validation of URLs within the webhook processing mechanism. When users configure webhooks to notify external services about repository events, the application fails to properly sanitize or validate the target URLs provided by users. This allows malicious actors to craft webhook URLs that point to internal network resources, effectively enabling them to perform reconnaissance and potentially exploit services running on the same network infrastructure. The flaw operates at the application layer, leveraging the legitimate webhook functionality to create unauthorized access paths to internal systems.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability presents significant risk to organizations using these platforms, particularly those with complex network architectures where internal services are not properly isolated from external-facing components. Attackers can leverage this weakness to discover and potentially compromise internal services that might be running on standard ports or utilizing predictable service names. The impact extends beyond simple information disclosure, as it could enable lateral movement within network environments, allowing attackers to escalate their privileges or gain access to sensitive internal systems. This vulnerability directly aligns with CWE-918, which specifically addresses server-side request forgery vulnerabilities, and maps to attack techniques described in the MITRE ATT&CK framework under T1071.004 for application layer protocol and T1046 for network service scanning.
Organizations should immediately implement mitigations including updating to patched versions of both Gitea and Gogs, implementing strict URL validation for webhook configurations, and restricting webhook functionality to trusted domains only. Network-level controls such as firewalls and access control lists should be configured to prevent outbound connections from the web application to internal services, while also implementing proper ingress filtering to restrict access to internal resources. Additionally, organizations should conduct thorough security assessments of their webhook configurations and consider implementing webhook URL whitelisting mechanisms to ensure that only known good endpoints can receive notifications from the Git hosting platform. The remediation process should also include comprehensive logging and monitoring of webhook activity to detect any suspicious patterns that might indicate exploitation attempts.