CVE-2022-3283 in Community Edition
Summary
by MITRE • 10/17/2022
A potential DOS vulnerability was discovered in GitLab CE/EE affecting all versions before before 15.2.5, all versions starting from 15.3 before 15.3.4, all versions starting from 15.4 before 15.4.1 While cloning an issue with special crafted content added to the description could have been used to trigger high CPU usage.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 05/13/2025
This vulnerability represents a denial of service condition in GitLab Community and Enterprise editions that stems from insufficient input validation during issue cloning operations. The flaw specifically manifests when users attempt to clone issues containing specially crafted content within the description field, leading to excessive cpu consumption during the cloning process. The vulnerability affects multiple version ranges including all releases prior to 15.2.5, versions from 15.3.0 through 15.3.3, and versions from 15.4.0 through 15.4.0. This issue falls under the category of resource exhaustion attacks where malicious actors can exploit the system's processing capabilities through carefully constructed payloads.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability involves the gitlab application's handling of issue description fields during cloning operations. When an issue contains crafted content that triggers specific parsing behaviors, the system's cpu utilization spikes significantly as it attempts to process the malformed data. This processing behavior creates a condition where legitimate users may experience service degradation or complete unavailability of the cloning functionality. The vulnerability demonstrates characteristics consistent with cwe-400 resource exhaustion issues where insufficient resource management leads to system instability. The attack vector requires minimal privileges since any user with access to create or clone issues can potentially trigger this condition, making it particularly concerning for collaborative environments.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability can severely disrupt development workflows in organizations relying on gitlab for issue tracking and project management. The high cpu usage can affect not only the specific cloning operation but potentially impact overall system performance, causing cascading effects on other gitlab services. The vulnerability creates an environment where attackers can cause service disruption without requiring administrative privileges, making it attractive for malicious actors seeking to degrade service availability. This type of vulnerability aligns with attack techniques described in the mitre att&ck framework under the resource exhaustion category, specifically targeting system availability through computational resource manipulation.
The recommended mitigation strategy involves upgrading to gitlab versions 15.2.5, 15.3.4, or 15.4.1 respectively, which contain patches addressing the input validation issues. Organizations should also implement proper input sanitization measures and monitor system resource utilization for unusual cpu spikes during issue operations. Additional defensive measures include restricting issue creation privileges for untrusted users and implementing rate limiting on cloning operations to prevent abuse. System administrators should consider implementing monitoring alerts for elevated cpu usage patterns that could indicate exploitation attempts. The vulnerability highlights the importance of proper input validation and resource management in web applications, particularly in collaborative platforms where users can create content that gets processed by the system. This case demonstrates how seemingly benign functionality can become a vector for denial of service attacks when proper security controls are not implemented in the application's processing pipeline.