CVE-2024-4835 in GitLab
Summary
by MITRE • 05/23/2024
A XSS condition exists within GitLab in versions 15.11 before 16.10.6, 16.11 before 16.11.3, and 17.0 before 17.0.1. By leveraging this condition, an attacker can craft a malicious page to exfiltrate sensitive user information.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 03/28/2025
This cross-site scripting vulnerability in GitLab represents a critical security flaw that allows attackers to execute malicious scripts in the context of a victim's browser session. The vulnerability affects multiple versions including 15.11 through 16.10.5, 16.11 through 16.11.2, and 17.0 through 17.0.0, creating a substantial attack surface across the GitLab platform. The flaw enables unauthorized individuals to inject malicious code that can capture user credentials, session tokens, and other sensitive data from the victim's browser environment.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from insufficient input validation and output encoding within GitLab's web interface components. When users interact with certain web pages or components that process user-provided data, the application fails to properly sanitize or encode the input before rendering it in the browser context. This creates an opportunity for attackers to inject malicious javascript code that executes in the victim's browser when they visit the compromised page or interact with the vulnerable functionality. The vulnerability is classified under CWE-79 which specifically addresses cross-site scripting flaws in web applications.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is severe as it allows for comprehensive data exfiltration and session hijacking attacks. An attacker can craft malicious pages that steal cookies, session identifiers, and potentially access private repositories, code, and user information without detection. The attack chain typically involves creating a malicious page that when visited by an authenticated user triggers the execution of malicious javascript code. This code can then exfiltrate sensitive information to an attacker-controlled server, potentially compromising entire development environments and access credentials for multiple projects.
Organizations using affected GitLab versions should immediately implement comprehensive mitigation strategies to protect their development infrastructure. The primary recommendation involves upgrading to the patched versions 16.10.6, 16.11.3, and 17.0.1 respectively, which contain the necessary input validation and output encoding fixes. Additionally, implementing proper content security policies, monitoring for suspicious user activity, and conducting regular security audits of web applications can help detect and prevent exploitation attempts. This vulnerability aligns with ATT&CK technique T1531 which focuses on use of web shell and T1566 which covers credential access through social engineering and web-based attacks. Organizations should also consider implementing web application firewalls and regular security training for development teams to recognize and prevent such attacks. The vulnerability demonstrates the critical importance of input validation and output encoding practices in web application security, particularly in collaborative development platforms where user-generated content processing is common.