CVE-2022-3572 in Community Edition
Summary
by MITRE • 01/26/2023
A cross-site scripting issue has been discovered in GitLab CE/EE affecting all versions from 13.5 prior to 15.3.5, 15.4 prior to 15.4.4, and 15.5 prior to 15.5.2. It was possible to exploit a vulnerability in setting the Jira Connect integration which could lead to a reflected XSS that allowed attackers to perform arbitrary actions on behalf of victims.
Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.
Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/20/2023
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2022-3572 represents a critical cross-site scripting flaw within GitLab Community Edition and Enterprise Edition platforms. This security weakness affects multiple version ranges including all releases from 13.5 through 15.3.4, 15.4 through 15.4.3, and 15.5 through 15.5.1, creating an extensive attack surface for malicious actors. The vulnerability specifically manifests within the Jira Connect integration functionality, which serves as a bridge between GitLab and Atlassian Jira systems, enabling seamless project management and issue tracking synchronization.
The technical implementation of this flaw stems from inadequate input validation and output encoding within the Jira integration settings. When administrators configure the Jira Connect integration, the application fails to properly sanitize user-supplied parameters that are subsequently reflected back to users in the web interface. This creates an environment where malicious input can be executed as client-side scripts, allowing attackers to inject malicious JavaScript code that persists in the application's response. The vulnerability operates through a reflected XSS pattern where attacker-controlled data flows from the request to the response without proper sanitization, making it particularly dangerous for authenticated users who interact with the integrated system.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple script execution, as it enables attackers to perform arbitrary actions on behalf of legitimate users within the GitLab environment. This privilege escalation capability allows malicious actors to manipulate project settings, access sensitive code repositories, modify issue tracking data, and potentially exfiltrate confidential information. The attack vector specifically targets the Jira integration configuration process, meaning that successful exploitation requires only that an administrator or authorized user visits a maliciously crafted URL or interacts with compromised integration settings. This makes the vulnerability particularly dangerous in enterprise environments where GitLab serves as a central collaboration platform and administrators frequently configure third-party integrations.
Organizations affected by this vulnerability should immediately implement the recommended security patches available in GitLab versions 15.3.5, 15.4.4, and 15.5.2 respectively, which address the input validation issues within the Jira Connect integration module. Security teams should also consider implementing additional protective measures such as web application firewalls that can detect and block suspicious input patterns targeting the affected integration endpoints. Network segmentation and least privilege access controls should be enforced to limit the potential damage from successful exploitation attempts. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-79 which specifically addresses cross-site scripting flaws in web applications, and maps to ATT&CK technique T1566.001 which covers social engineering through malicious links and payloads. Regular security audits of third-party integration points should be conducted to identify similar vulnerabilities that may exist in other connected systems, as this type of flaw often indicates broader input validation weaknesses within the application architecture.