CVE-2023-3932 in Enterprise Edition
Summary
by MITRE • 08/03/2023
An issue has been discovered in GitLab EE affecting all versions starting from 13.12 before 16.0.8, all versions starting from 16.1 before 16.1.3, all versions starting from 16.2 before 16.2.2. It was possible for an attacker to run pipeline jobs as an arbitrary user via scheduled security scan policies.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/03/2024
This vulnerability in GitLab Enterprise Edition represents a critical privilege escalation flaw that allows attackers to execute pipeline jobs under arbitrary user identities through manipulated scheduled security scan policies. The issue stems from insufficient input validation and access control mechanisms within GitLab's CI/CD pipeline scheduling functionality. Attackers could exploit this weakness by crafting malicious scheduled scan policies that would trigger pipeline execution with elevated privileges, effectively bypassing normal user access controls and potentially gaining unauthorized access to sensitive project resources and data. The vulnerability affects multiple version ranges spanning from 13.12 through 16.2.1, indicating a prolonged period during which organizations remained exposed to this threat vector. This flaw directly impacts GitLab's security posture by undermining the principle of least privilege and allowing unauthorized code execution within the CI/CD environment.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability occurs within GitLab's pipeline scheduling subsystem where security scan policies are processed and executed. When scheduled security scans are configured, the system fails to properly validate user identities and permissions before initiating pipeline jobs. This validation gap enables attackers to manipulate policy parameters to specify arbitrary user contexts for pipeline execution. The flaw is classified as a privilege escalation vulnerability under CWE-269 which specifically addresses "Improper Privilege Management" and aligns with ATT&CK technique T1078.004 for "Valid Accounts: Cloud Accounts" where attackers leverage legitimate user identities to execute malicious operations. The vulnerability's exploitation requires minimal privileges to initiate the attack but can result in significant impact across the entire CI/CD infrastructure.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple code execution to encompass potential data breaches, unauthorized access to production environments, and compromise of the entire software supply chain. Organizations using GitLab for continuous integration and deployment could experience unauthorized pipeline execution that might access sensitive source code repositories, configuration files, and deployment credentials. The attack could lead to code injection, data exfiltration, or even complete compromise of the CI/CD environment, affecting multiple projects simultaneously. This vulnerability particularly threatens organizations that rely heavily on automated security scanning and pipeline automation, as attackers could exploit it to execute malicious code within the build environment. The potential for lateral movement within the CI/CD infrastructure makes this a particularly dangerous vulnerability from a supply chain security perspective.
Organizations should immediately upgrade to the patched versions of GitLab EE 16.0.8, 16.1.3, or 16.2.2 to remediate this vulnerability. The patch addresses the input validation issues in scheduled security scan policies and implements proper access control checks for pipeline execution contexts. Administrators should review all scheduled security scan policies and pipeline configurations to ensure no malicious entries have been introduced. Network segmentation and monitoring of CI/CD pipeline activities should be enhanced to detect unauthorized pipeline executions. Additionally, implementing principle of least privilege controls for pipeline jobs and regular security audits of CI/CD configurations will help prevent exploitation of similar vulnerabilities. Organizations should also consider implementing automated vulnerability scanning tools that can detect unauthorized changes to pipeline configurations and security policies. The remediation process should include comprehensive testing to ensure that legitimate scheduled scans continue to function properly while eliminating the privilege escalation vector exploited by attackers.