CVE-2022-2250 in Community Edition
Summary
by MITRE • 07/01/2022
An open redirect vulnerability in GitLab EE/CE affecting all versions from 11.1 prior to 14.10.5, 15.0 prior to 15.0.4, and 15.1 prior to 15.1.1, allows an attacker to redirect users to an arbitrary location if they trust the URL.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 07/18/2022
The open redirect vulnerability identified as CVE-2022-2250 represents a critical security flaw in GitLab Enterprise Edition and Community Edition platforms that has affected multiple version ranges including 11.1 through 14.10.4, 15.0 through 15.0.3, and 15.1 through 15.1.0. This vulnerability stems from insufficient validation of redirect URLs within the application's authentication and navigation mechanisms, creating an attack vector that can be exploited by malicious actors to manipulate user sessions and potentially escalate privileges. The flaw is categorized under CWE-601 as an open redirect vulnerability, which falls under the broader category of insecure redirection practices that have been consistently flagged as security risks in web applications. The vulnerability operates by allowing attackers to craft malicious URLs that contain redirect parameters pointing to external domains, leveraging the trust relationship between the GitLab instance and its users to execute unauthorized redirects.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability occurs when GitLab processes user requests containing redirect parameters without proper validation of the target URLs. Attackers can exploit this by crafting URLs that appear legitimate within the GitLab context but redirect to malicious external domains when processed by the application. This typically occurs in authentication flows, session management, or navigation components where the application accepts redirect destinations from user input. The vulnerability is particularly dangerous because it can be used in phishing attacks where users are redirected to fake GitLab login pages or other malicious sites that appear to be legitimate GitLab interfaces. The flaw exists in the application's input sanitization and validation logic, where it fails to properly verify that redirect destinations originate from trusted domains within the GitLab installation. This creates a trust boundary violation where the application's own redirect mechanism becomes a tool for malicious redirection rather than a security feature.
The operational impact of CVE-2022-2250 extends beyond simple redirection attacks and can enable more sophisticated exploitation techniques including credential harvesting, session hijacking, and social engineering campaigns. When users are redirected to malicious domains through this vulnerability, attackers can capture authentication credentials, manipulate user sessions, or gather sensitive information from the victim's browser. The vulnerability particularly affects organizations that rely heavily on GitLab for code repositories and collaboration, as the attack surface includes all user interactions with the platform's authentication and navigation components. Security teams must consider that this vulnerability can be used in combination with other attack vectors to create more effective phishing campaigns or to bypass security controls that rely on proper URL validation. The impact is amplified when considering that GitLab is often integrated with other enterprise systems, making this vulnerability a potential entry point for broader network compromise. Organizations using affected versions face significant risk of user data exposure and potential unauthorized access to code repositories and development environments.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2022-2250 should focus on immediate version upgrades to patched releases including GitLab 14.10.5, 15.0.4, and 15.1.1, which contain the necessary security fixes. Organizations should also implement additional protective measures such as network-level URL validation, monitoring for suspicious redirect patterns in application logs, and user education about recognizing potentially malicious redirects. The remediation process requires careful testing of the patched versions to ensure that legitimate redirect functionality remains operational while addressing the security gap. Security configurations should include strict validation of redirect destinations to prevent external domain redirection, implementing a whitelist of approved domains, and monitoring for unauthorized redirect attempts. From an ATT&CK perspective, this vulnerability maps to techniques involving credential access through phishing and social engineering, as well as initial access via malicious links. Organizations should also consider implementing web application firewalls and content security policies to provide additional protection layers against exploitation attempts. The vulnerability highlights the importance of proper input validation and the need for comprehensive security testing of authentication flows to prevent similar issues in other applications.