CVE-2022-3706 in Community Edition
Summary
by MITRE • 11/10/2022
Improper authorization in GitLab CE/EE affecting all versions from 7.14 prior to 15.3.5, 15.4 prior to 15.4.4, and 15.5 prior to 15.5.2 allows a user retrying a job in a downstream pipeline to take ownership of the retried jobs in the upstream pipeline even if the user doesn't have access to that project.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 12/11/2022
This vulnerability resides in GitLab Community Edition and Enterprise editions, impacting versions from 7.14 through 15.3.4, 15.4.3, and 15.5.1, representing a critical authorization flaw that undermines the security model of pipeline operations. The issue manifests when users attempt to retry jobs within downstream pipelines, creating an unauthorized access scenario where individuals can assume ownership of retried jobs in upstream pipelines without proper project access permissions. This represents a significant deviation from expected authorization controls where pipeline job ownership should remain tied to project access rights rather than being susceptible to manipulation through job retry mechanisms. The vulnerability directly violates the principle of least privilege and could enable malicious actors or unauthorized users to gain elevated access to pipeline operations they should not be permitted to control, potentially exposing sensitive build processes and data.
The technical flaw stems from insufficient validation of user permissions during the job retry process within GitLab's pipeline architecture. When a user initiates a job retry in a downstream pipeline, the system fails to properly verify whether the requesting user possesses appropriate access rights to the upstream project containing the original job. This authorization bypass occurs at the pipeline orchestration layer where job ownership transfer logic does not adequately cross-check user permissions against project access controls. The flaw essentially allows for privilege escalation through indirect means, where a user with access to one pipeline can manipulate jobs in another pipeline through the retry mechanism, effectively circumventing the standard access control matrix that should govern such operations.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple unauthorized access, potentially enabling sophisticated attack patterns that could compromise entire development workflows. An attacker could exploit this weakness to monitor, manipulate, or disrupt upstream pipeline operations, potentially gaining insights into sensitive code builds, accessing confidential environment variables, or even injecting malicious code into the build process. The vulnerability creates a persistent backdoor where unauthorized users can maintain access to upstream pipeline jobs through repeated retry attempts, making detection more challenging. This could particularly impact organizations with complex multi-project pipeline hierarchies where downstream projects depend on upstream builds, as it allows for unauthorized interference across the entire pipeline chain.
Mitigation strategies should focus on immediate patch application to the affected GitLab versions, with organizations prioritizing upgrades to versions 15.3.5, 15.4.4, or 15.5.2 respectively. System administrators should implement enhanced monitoring of pipeline retry operations and establish automated alerts for unauthorized job ownership changes. Organizations should also review their pipeline access controls and implement additional authorization checks beyond the default GitLab permissions model. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-285, which addresses improper authorization, and maps to ATT&CK technique T1078.004 for valid accounts, as it enables unauthorized access through legitimate job retry mechanisms. Regular security audits of pipeline configurations and access controls should be conducted to identify similar authorization gaps, while implementing zero-trust principles for pipeline operations to prevent such cross-project privilege escalation scenarios from occurring in the future.