CVE-2023-3484 in Enterprise Edition
Summary
by MITRE • 07/21/2023
An issue has been discovered in GitLab EE affecting all versions starting from 12.8 before 15.11.11, all versions starting from 16.0 before 16.0.7, all versions starting from 16.1 before 16.1.2. An attacker could change the name or path of a public top-level group in certain situations.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 08/15/2023
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2023-3484 represents a critical authorization flaw within GitLab Enterprise Edition that affects multiple version ranges including 12.8 through 15.11.10, 16.0 through 16.0.6, and 16.1 through 16.1.1. This issue stems from insufficient access controls that permit unauthorized modification of public top-level group properties, specifically allowing attackers to alter group names or paths under certain conditions. The flaw manifests when an attacker can manipulate the group identification parameters without proper authentication or authorization, creating potential security risks for organizations relying on GitLab for code repository management and collaboration. This vulnerability directly impacts the integrity and authenticity of group-level metadata within GitLab's access control framework.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability resides in GitLab's group management system where the authorization checks fail to properly validate user permissions when processing requests to modify top-level group attributes. This represents a classic authorization bypass issue that can be categorized under CWE-285, which deals with insufficient authorization within software systems. The flaw operates by allowing an attacker to exploit the group modification endpoint without proper verification of the user's privileges, potentially enabling them to rename or restructure public groups that they should not have access to modify. This type of vulnerability falls under the ATT&CK technique T1078.004 which covers valid accounts used for unauthorized access, as it leverages existing access mechanisms to perform unauthorized modifications.
The operational impact of CVE-2023-3484 extends beyond simple metadata manipulation as it can lead to significant disruption of organizational workflows and potential security breaches. Attackers could exploit this vulnerability to create confusion within development teams by renaming groups to misleading names, potentially causing developers to access incorrect repositories or collaborate on wrong projects. Additionally, the ability to modify group paths could break existing integrations, webhooks, and automated processes that depend on specific group naming conventions. Organizations using GitLab for managing sensitive code repositories face increased risk of unauthorized access to group resources and potential data exposure through this vulnerability. The impact is particularly severe for companies with complex organizational structures where group names and paths are integral to their development processes and security boundaries.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2023-3484 require immediate patching of affected GitLab installations to versions 15.11.11, 16.0.7, or 16.1.2 respectively, as these releases contain the necessary fixes for the authorization bypass. Organizations should also implement additional monitoring of group modification activities to detect unauthorized changes in their GitLab environments. Security teams should conduct comprehensive reviews of access controls and permissions for top-level groups, ensuring that only authorized administrators can modify group properties. Network segmentation and additional authentication layers can provide defense-in-depth measures while the primary patches are being deployed. The vulnerability demonstrates the importance of proper access control implementation and validates the need for regular security assessments of identity and access management systems within collaborative development platforms. Organizations should also consider implementing automated compliance checks to verify that group modification permissions are properly configured and that unauthorized changes are promptly detected and addressed through their incident response procedures.