CVE-2019-9174 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 SSRF.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 08/29/2023
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2019-9174 represents a server-side request forgery flaw that affected GitLab Community and Enterprise Edition installations across multiple version streams prior to specific patch releases. This security weakness allowed malicious actors to manipulate the application's ability to make HTTP requests to arbitrary destinations, effectively bypassing intended access controls and potentially exposing internal systems to unauthorized access. The vulnerability was particularly concerning given GitLab's widespread adoption across development organizations that rely on it for code repository management, CI/CD pipeline orchestration, and collaborative software development workflows.
The technical implementation of this SSRF vulnerability stemmed from insufficient input validation within GitLab's handling of external resource requests. Attackers could exploit this flaw by crafting malicious requests that would cause the GitLab application to initiate connections to internal network services or external malicious endpoints. This occurred because the application failed to properly sanitize or validate URLs and request parameters that were intended to be passed to external services. The flaw was classified under CWE-918, which specifically addresses server-side request forgery vulnerabilities where applications fail to properly validate and sanitize user-supplied input that influences HTTP requests.
The operational impact of CVE-2019-9174 extended beyond simple data exfiltration or service disruption. Organizations running vulnerable GitLab instances faced potential exposure of internal network infrastructure, including access to databases, internal APIs, and other sensitive systems that might be accessible from the GitLab server. This vulnerability could enable attackers to perform reconnaissance activities, escalate privileges within the internal network, or even establish persistent access points through the compromised GitLab instance. The attack surface was particularly broad given that GitLab installations often run with elevated privileges and may have access to various internal resources that are normally protected by network segmentation.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability required immediate patching of affected GitLab installations to versions 11.6.10, 11.7.6, or 11.8.1, depending on the specific version in use. Organizations should have implemented network-level restrictions to prevent outbound connections from GitLab servers to internal services, particularly those that were not explicitly required for GitLab operations. Additionally, security teams should have reviewed and hardened the application's configuration to ensure that all external resource requests were properly validated and restricted. The ATT&CK framework categorizes this type of vulnerability under T1071.004 for application layer protocol: DNS and T1566 for credential access through social engineering, highlighting the multi-faceted nature of the threat landscape that such vulnerabilities create. Organizations should have also considered implementing network monitoring solutions to detect unusual outbound traffic patterns that might indicate exploitation attempts. The vulnerability demonstrated the critical importance of input validation and the principle of least privilege in application security, particularly for platforms that serve as central points of access within development environments.