CVE-2023-3205 in GitLab
Summary
by MITRE • 09/01/2023
An issue has been discovered in GitLab affecting all versions starting from 15.11 before 16.1.5, all versions starting from 16.2 before 16.2.5, all versions starting from 16.3 before 16.3.1. An authenticated user could trigger a denial of service when importing or cloning malicious content.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/03/2024
This vulnerability in GitLab represents a critical denial of service flaw that affects multiple version ranges including 15.11 through 16.1.4, 16.2 through 16.2.4, and 16.3 through 16.3.0. The issue stems from insufficient input validation during the import and cloning operations of malicious content, allowing authenticated users to exploit this weakness and disrupt normal system operations. The vulnerability falls under CWE-400, which specifically addresses Uncontrolled Resource Consumption, making it particularly dangerous in enterprise environments where GitLab serves as a central code repository and collaboration platform. From an operational perspective, this flaw creates a significant risk for organizations relying on GitLab for their software development workflows, as malicious actors with legitimate credentials could systematically consume system resources and render the platform unavailable to other users.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability occurs during the content import and cloning processes where GitLab fails to properly validate or sanitize the data being processed. When an authenticated user submits malicious content for import or cloning operations, the system does not adequately check for resource-intensive patterns or malformed data structures that could cause the underlying processes to consume excessive CPU cycles, memory, or disk I/O resources. This behavior aligns with ATT&CK technique T1499.004, which covers "Fork Bomb," where attackers leverage system resources to cause denial of service conditions. The flaw essentially allows for a form of resource exhaustion attack that can be initiated by any authenticated user, making it particularly concerning for environments with shared access or compromised accounts.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple service disruption, as it can lead to cascading failures within development environments and CI/CD pipelines that depend on GitLab functionality. Organizations may experience extended downtime during which developers cannot access repositories, submit code changes, or perform essential version control operations. The vulnerability's exploitation potential is heightened by the fact that it requires only authenticated access, meaning that compromised user accounts or insider threats could immediately leverage this weakness. System administrators may observe unusual resource consumption patterns, slow response times, or complete service unavailability during exploitation attempts. The affected versions span multiple major releases, indicating that this was a widespread issue that required coordinated patching across different GitLab version lines.
Organizations should immediately implement the available patches for GitLab versions 16.1.5, 16.2.5, and 16.3.1 to remediate this vulnerability. Additionally, implementing network-level controls to monitor and limit resource consumption during import and cloning operations can provide defense-in-depth protection. Access controls and privileged account management should be reviewed to minimize the risk of unauthorized exploitation. Security monitoring should include detection of unusual resource consumption patterns during version control operations, and incident response procedures should be updated to address potential denial of service scenarios involving GitLab import functionality. The vulnerability demonstrates the importance of input validation in version control systems and highlights the need for comprehensive security testing of core platform operations that handle external content ingestion.