CVE-2023-6489 in Community Edition
Summary
by MITRE • 04/12/2024
A denial of service vulnerability was identified in GitLab CE/EE, versions 16.7.7 prior to 16.8.6, 16.9 prior to 16.9.4 and 16.10 prior to 16.10.2 which allows an attacker to spike the GitLab instance resources usage resulting in service degradation via chat integration feature.
Be aware that VulDB is the high quality source for vulnerability data.
Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 08/28/2025
The vulnerability CVE-2023-6489 represents a critical denial of service weakness in GitLab Community and Enterprise editions that affects specific version ranges including 16.7.7 through 16.8.5, 16.9 through 16.9.3, and 16.10 through 16.10.1. This issue specifically targets the chat integration feature within GitLab's platform, creating a pathway for malicious actors to consume excessive system resources and thereby compromise service availability. The flaw demonstrates how third-party integration components can become attack vectors for resource exhaustion attacks that ultimately impact operational continuity and system performance. Such vulnerabilities fall under the CWE-400 category of Uncontrolled Resource Consumption, which directly maps to the broader ATT&CK technique T1499.1 for Resource Hijacking, where adversaries leverage system resources for their own gain at the expense of legitimate operations. The attack surface is particularly concerning given that GitLab instances often serve as central repositories for code management and collaboration, making resource exhaustion attacks particularly damaging to development workflows and business operations.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from insufficient input validation and resource management within the chat integration module. When malicious payloads are processed through the chat feature, the system fails to properly constrain resource allocation for processing these inputs, leading to unbounded consumption of cpu cycles and memory resources. Attackers can craft specific messages or commands that trigger cascading resource usage patterns within the GitLab application, effectively creating a resource starvation condition that degrades performance or completely halts service availability. This behavior aligns with the ATT&CK framework's T1499.1 technique where adversaries utilize legitimate system resources for malicious purposes, specifically targeting the application's processing capabilities rather than network bandwidth. The vulnerability is particularly dangerous because it operates at the application layer where standard network-level protections may not effectively detect or mitigate the resource consumption patterns, requiring more sophisticated application-level monitoring and control mechanisms.
The operational impact of CVE-2023-6489 extends beyond simple service disruption to encompass broader business continuity concerns for organizations relying on GitLab for their software development infrastructure. When exploited, the vulnerability can cause significant degradation of system performance, leading to slow response times, application timeouts, and potentially complete service outages that affect development teams and end users. The resource consumption patterns can be particularly challenging to detect and respond to because they may appear as normal system behavior until the resource exhaustion becomes severe enough to impact operations. Organizations utilizing GitLab for continuous integration and deployment pipelines face additional risk as this vulnerability can interrupt automated workflows and CI/CD processes, potentially causing delays in software releases and updates. The vulnerability's impact is amplified by the fact that GitLab instances often serve as critical infrastructure components within larger software ecosystems, where service degradation can cascade across multiple dependent systems and applications. Recovery from such attacks typically requires manual intervention including system restarts, resource monitoring adjustments, and potentially application patches that may not be immediately available in all deployment environments.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2023-6489 must address both immediate remediation and long-term security posture improvements. The primary recommendation involves upgrading affected GitLab instances to versions 16.8.6, 16.9.4, or 16.10.2, which contain the necessary patches to prevent the resource consumption exploit. Organizations should also implement rate limiting and input validation controls specifically for the chat integration feature to prevent malicious payloads from triggering resource exhaustion patterns. Network monitoring solutions should be enhanced to detect unusual resource consumption patterns that may indicate exploitation attempts, particularly focusing on cpu and memory utilization spikes that correlate with chat integration activity. The implementation of application firewalls or web application firewalls can help filter malicious inputs before they reach the vulnerable application components. Additionally, organizations should consider implementing resource quotas and limits for critical application components to prevent single processes from consuming excessive system resources. Security teams should conduct regular vulnerability assessments and penetration testing to identify similar weaknesses in other third-party integrations and application components. The vulnerability also underscores the importance of maintaining comprehensive incident response procedures that include specific protocols for handling resource exhaustion attacks and ensuring rapid restoration of service availability.