CVE-2023-1084 in Community Edition
Summary
by MITRE • 03/09/2023
An issue has been discovered in GitLab CE/EE affecting all versions before 15.7.8, all versions starting from 15.8 before 15.8.4, all versions starting from 15.9 before 15.9.2. A malicious project Maintainer may create a Project Access Token with Owner level privileges using a crafted request.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 08/11/2025
This vulnerability in GitLab CE/EE represents a critical privilege escalation flaw that allows malicious actors with Maintainer-level access to escalate their privileges to Owner level through a specifically crafted API request. The issue stems from inadequate access control validation within the project access token creation mechanism, enabling unauthorized privilege elevation without proper authentication checks. This vulnerability affects a broad range of GitLab versions including all releases before 15.7.8, versions from 15.8.0 through 15.8.3, and versions from 15.9.0 through 15.9.1, indicating a widespread impact across multiple release branches. The flaw specifically manifests when a Maintainer attempts to create a Project Access Token, which should normally be restricted to Maintainer-level privileges but instead allows the creation of tokens with Owner-level permissions. This represents a direct violation of the principle of least privilege and demonstrates a critical failure in the access control implementation.
The technical exploitation of this vulnerability occurs through API endpoints that handle project access token creation, where the system fails to properly validate the requesting user's privileges before granting Owner-level permissions to newly created tokens. This flaw falls under CWE-284, which specifically addresses improper access control, and aligns with ATT&CK technique T1078.004 for Valid Accounts and T1484.001 for Cloud Service Account Manipulation. The vulnerability exists because the system does not properly enforce role-based access controls during token creation, allowing a user with Maintainer privileges to bypass normal access restrictions and create tokens with elevated permissions. This creates a significant security risk as Owner-level privileges typically include the ability to manage project settings, add or remove members, and perform administrative functions that could compromise the entire project and potentially the broader GitLab instance.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond individual project compromise, as successful exploitation could enable attackers to gain complete administrative control over affected projects and potentially access sensitive code, configuration files, and other project resources. Project Owners typically have the highest level of permissions within GitLab projects, including the ability to manage project access controls, modify repository settings, and potentially access confidential information stored within the project. This vulnerability could be particularly dangerous in enterprise environments where GitLab instances host multiple projects with varying sensitivity levels, as a single compromised project could provide attackers with a foothold to escalate access across multiple projects. The implications for continuous integration and deployment pipelines are severe, as Owner-level access could enable attackers to modify build processes, inject malicious code, or gain access to production environments through compromised project configurations.
Organizations should immediately implement mitigations including updating to the patched versions 15.7.8, 15.8.4, and 15.9.2 respectively, or applying the relevant security patches provided by GitLab. Administrators should also implement additional monitoring of access token creation activities and review existing project access tokens for potential misuse. The vulnerability highlights the importance of proper access control validation and the need for comprehensive security testing of API endpoints that handle privilege escalation scenarios. Security teams should conduct thorough audits of project-level access controls and implement automated monitoring solutions to detect unusual token creation patterns that could indicate exploitation attempts. This vulnerability underscores the critical importance of maintaining up-to-date software versions and implementing robust access control mechanisms to prevent unauthorized privilege escalation in version control systems.