CVE-2022-2281 in Enterprise Edition
Summary
by MITRE • 07/01/2022
An information disclosure vulnerability in GitLab EE affecting all versions from 12.5 prior to 14.10.5, 15.0 prior to 15.0.4, and 15.1 prior to 15.1.1, allows disclosure of release titles if group milestones are associated with any project releases.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 07/18/2022
This vulnerability represents a critical information disclosure flaw in GitLab Enterprise Edition that exposes release titles to unauthorized users through group milestone associations. The vulnerability exists in versions prior to specific patched releases including 14.10.5, 15.0.4, and 15.1.1, affecting all versions from 12.5 through 15.1. The flaw stems from insufficient access controls when group milestones reference project releases, creating an unintended data leakage channel.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability involves a weakness in GitLab's authorization mechanisms where group milestone objects maintain references to project releases without proper validation of user permissions. When users access group milestones that are associated with project releases, the system inadvertently exposes release title information that should be restricted to authorized personnel. This represents a classic case of insufficient authorization checks and improper access control enforcement, which aligns with CWE-284 access control vulnerabilities.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability allows attackers to discover sensitive release information that may include version numbers, feature descriptions, bug fixes, and other metadata that could aid in subsequent attacks. The disclosure of release titles can provide attackers with insights into development timelines, planned features, and security patching schedules, potentially enabling more targeted exploitation strategies. This information leakage directly violates the principle of least privilege and can significantly impact security posture by providing threat actors with valuable reconnaissance data.
The vulnerability manifests when users with insufficient privileges attempt to access group milestones that contain references to project releases. The system fails to properly validate whether the requesting user has appropriate permissions to view the associated release information, creating a path for unauthorized data access. This flaw can be exploited by any user who can access group milestones, potentially including external collaborators or users with limited access rights within the GitLab instance.
Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including upgrading to the patched versions 14.10.5, 15.0.4, or 15.1.1 depending on their current GitLab version. Additionally, administrators should review and strengthen access control policies for group milestones and project releases, ensuring that proper permission boundaries are enforced. Network segmentation and monitoring should be implemented to detect unusual access patterns related to milestone and release data access. This vulnerability's impact aligns with ATT&CK technique T1213 Information Gathering, where adversaries collect information about the target environment to plan subsequent attacks. Regular security audits of access control mechanisms and privilege escalation pathways should be conducted to prevent similar issues from emerging in other components of the GitLab platform.