CVE-2019-7353 in Community Edition
Summary
by MITRE
An Incorrect Access Control issue was discovered in GitLab Community and Enterprise Edition 11.7.x before 11.7.4. GitLab Releases were vulnerable to an authorization issue that allowed users to view confidential issue and merge request titles of other projects.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/23/2023
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2019-7353 represents a critical authorization flaw in GitLab's access control mechanisms affecting versions 11.7.x prior to 11.7.4. This issue manifests as an incorrect access control vulnerability that permits unauthorized users to access sensitive project information. The flaw specifically impacts both Community and Enterprise editions of GitLab, demonstrating the widespread nature of the vulnerability across different deployment scenarios. The vulnerability operates at the application level where proper access controls fail to validate user permissions correctly when accessing confidential issue and merge request titles.
This access control failure stems from inadequate validation of user privileges when retrieving project metadata. The vulnerability allows authenticated users to bypass normal permission checks and access confidential information that should only be visible to authorized project members. The technical implementation appears to lack proper scope validation when processing API requests for issue and merge request titles, enabling attackers to craft requests that retrieve data from projects they do not have explicit access to. This flaw aligns with CWE-285 which addresses improper authorization in software systems, specifically targeting the failure to properly enforce access controls for sensitive resources.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple information disclosure, as it compromises the confidentiality of development workflows and project data. Attackers can gain insights into project structures, development priorities, and potential security vulnerabilities through the exposed issue and merge request titles. This intelligence gathering capability can be leveraged for more sophisticated attacks, including social engineering attempts or targeting specific development activities. The vulnerability affects the core integrity of GitLab's permission model, undermining trust in the system's ability to maintain secure boundaries between different projects and users.
Organizations utilizing vulnerable GitLab versions face significant risk of unauthorized information exposure, potentially leading to competitive intelligence theft or exposure of sensitive development activities. The vulnerability's persistence across both community and enterprise editions indicates a fundamental flaw in the access control implementation that requires immediate attention. Security teams should prioritize patching this vulnerability as it represents a direct threat to project confidentiality and organizational security posture.
Mitigation strategies should include immediate deployment of GitLab version 11.7.4 or later, which contains the necessary access control fixes. Organizations should also implement monitoring for unauthorized access attempts and conduct comprehensive access control reviews. The fix addresses the underlying authorization logic to ensure proper validation of user permissions before granting access to confidential project information. Additionally, security teams should review their incident response procedures to address potential exploitation of this vulnerability, as it could enable attackers to gather intelligence for more targeted attacks. This vulnerability demonstrates the critical importance of proper access control implementation in collaborative development platforms and highlights the need for continuous security assessment of core application functionality.