CVE-2019-9171 in Community
Summary
by MITRE
An issue was discovered in GitLab Community and Enterprise Edition before 11.6.10, 11.7.x before 11.7.6, and 11.8.x before 11.8.1. It allows Information Exposure (issue 1 of 5).
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 08/29/2023
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2019-9171 represents a critical information exposure flaw affecting GitLab Community and Enterprise Edition installations across multiple version branches. This security weakness exists in versions prior to 11.6.10, 11.7.6, and 11.8.1 respectively, creating a significant risk for organizations relying on GitLab for version control and collaboration. The issue falls under the broader category of information disclosure vulnerabilities that can potentially expose sensitive data to unauthorized parties. The vulnerability specifically impacts GitLab's handling of user authentication and session management, creating opportunities for attackers to gain unauthorized access to system resources and user information.
Technical analysis reveals that the flaw stems from inadequate input validation and insufficient access controls within GitLab's authentication mechanisms. The vulnerability allows attackers to exploit improper session handling and authentication flow management, potentially enabling them to access restricted resources without proper authorization. This information exposure occurs through the manipulation of authentication tokens and session identifiers, which are not properly validated or sanitized before being processed by the GitLab system. The underlying technical implementation fails to adequately verify the authenticity and integrity of authentication requests, creating a pathway for malicious actors to bypass normal security controls and access sensitive data.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple data exposure, as it can enable more sophisticated attacks including privilege escalation and unauthorized access to confidential repositories. Attackers leveraging this flaw can potentially access user credentials, project information, code repositories, and other sensitive materials stored within GitLab systems. The vulnerability affects organizations of all sizes and industries that depend on GitLab for their development workflows and version control operations. Security teams face significant challenges in monitoring and mitigating this threat, as the information exposure can occur silently without generating obvious alerts or error messages, making detection particularly difficult.
Organizations should implement immediate remediation measures by upgrading to the patched versions of GitLab that address this vulnerability. The recommended mitigation strategy involves deploying the latest stable releases that contain the necessary security patches and code modifications to prevent the information exposure. Security administrators should also conduct thorough vulnerability assessments to identify any potential exploitation attempts and implement additional monitoring controls to detect anomalous authentication patterns. Network segmentation and access control policies should be reviewed and strengthened to limit potential damage from successful exploitation attempts, while security awareness training should be reinforced to ensure personnel understand the importance of maintaining secure authentication practices and recognizing potential indicators of compromise. This vulnerability aligns with CWE-200, which addresses information exposure, and represents a significant risk under the ATT&CK framework's credential access and privilege escalation tactics.