CVE-2019-5463 in Community Edition
Summary
by MITRE
An authorization issue was discovered in the GitLab CE/EE CI badge images endpoint which could result in disclosure of the build status. This vulnerability was addressed in 12.1.2, 12.0.4, and 11.11.6.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 12/18/2023
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2019-5463 represents a critical authorization flaw within GitLab's continuous integration infrastructure, specifically affecting the CI badge images endpoint in both Community and Enterprise editions. This issue stems from insufficient access controls that allow unauthorized users to retrieve build status information through badge image requests, potentially exposing sensitive project data and operational details to individuals who should not have such visibility. The vulnerability exists across multiple GitLab versions including 11.11.5 and earlier, 12.0.3 and earlier, and 12.1.1 and earlier, making it a widespread concern for organizations utilizing GitLab CI/CD pipelines.
The technical root cause of this authorization issue lies in the improper validation of user permissions when accessing CI badge image endpoints. When a user requests a build status badge image, the system should verify that the requesting user has appropriate access rights to view the specific project and its build information. However, the flawed implementation allows any authenticated user to potentially access badge information for projects they do not have direct access to, creating a privilege escalation scenario where unauthorized parties can obtain build status data including success or failure indicators, build timestamps, and potentially other metadata that could reveal system vulnerabilities or development progress. This weakness aligns with CWE-285, which addresses improper authorization within software systems, and represents a classic case of insufficient access control mechanisms.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple information disclosure, as build status badges often contain data that could reveal sensitive aspects of a development process including project timelines, build failures that might indicate security vulnerabilities, and system health indicators. An attacker could exploit this weakness to gather intelligence about ongoing development work, identify potential security gaps in the CI/CD pipeline, or even map out the organizational development workflow. The exposure of build status information could provide adversaries with valuable reconnaissance data for planning more sophisticated attacks, particularly if the build process reveals information about dependencies, environment configurations, or development practices that might be exploitable. This vulnerability particularly affects organizations that rely heavily on GitLab's CI/CD features and may be exploited by threat actors to gain insights into their software development lifecycle.
Organizations should immediately update their GitLab installations to versions 12.1.2, 12.0.4, or 11.11.6 to remediate this vulnerability, as these releases contain the necessary patches to enforce proper authorization controls on CI badge image endpoints. The mitigation strategy should include comprehensive testing of the updated systems to ensure that access controls function correctly and that legitimate users retain appropriate access to their project information while unauthorized users are properly restricted from accessing sensitive build data. Security teams should also conduct thorough audits of their CI/CD pipeline configurations to identify any additional potential access control weaknesses and implement monitoring solutions that can detect unauthorized access attempts to build status information. This vulnerability demonstrates the importance of maintaining strict access controls in automated systems and aligns with ATT&CK technique T1580 which covers exploitation of remote services and the importance of proper authorization enforcement in software systems.