CVE-2019-9223 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.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 08/29/2023
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2019-9223 represents a critical information exposure flaw within GitLab's authentication and authorization mechanisms. This issue affects multiple versions of GitLab Community and Enterprise Edition, specifically targeting releases prior to 11.6.10, 11.7.6, and 11.8.1 respectively. The flaw resides in how GitLab handles user session management and authentication tokens, creating a pathway for unauthorized access to sensitive information that should remain protected within the system's secure boundaries.
Technical exploitation of this vulnerability occurs through the manipulation of authentication tokens and session identifiers that are improperly validated or sanitized during user authentication processes. The flaw allows attackers to obtain access to information that should be restricted to authenticated users with specific permissions, potentially exposing sensitive data including but not limited to user credentials, project information, and system configuration details. This vulnerability falls under the CWE-200 category of "Information Exposure" and aligns with ATT&CK technique T1566 for credential access through exploitation of weak authentication mechanisms.
The operational impact of CVE-2019-9223 extends beyond simple data leakage, as it can enable attackers to escalate privileges and gain unauthorized access to confidential repositories and user accounts. Organizations utilizing affected GitLab versions face significant risk of data breaches, especially those handling sensitive source code, intellectual property, or regulated information. The vulnerability's exploitation requires minimal technical skill and can be automated, making it particularly dangerous for widespread compromise. Attackers can leverage this flaw to access private projects, view confidential code repositories, and potentially establish persistent access to development environments.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability include immediate upgrade to patched GitLab versions, implementation of enhanced monitoring for unusual authentication patterns, and review of access controls for sensitive repositories. Organizations should conduct comprehensive security audits of their GitLab installations, implement multi-factor authentication for critical accounts, and establish network segmentation to limit the potential impact of successful exploitation. Regular security assessments and vulnerability scanning should be conducted to identify and remediate similar issues in development environments and source code management systems. The patching process should include thorough testing to ensure that security updates do not introduce regressions in functionality while maintaining the integrity of the authentication system.