CVE-2024-8970 in Community Edition
Summary
by MITRE • 10/11/2024
An issue was discovered in GitLab CE/EE affecting all versions starting from 11.6 prior to 17.2.9, starting from 17.3 prior to 17.3.5, and starting from 17.4 prior to 17.4.2, which allows an attacker to trigger a pipeline as another user under certain circumstances.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/11/2024
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2024-8970 represents a critical authorization flaw within GitLab Community Edition and Enterprise Edition platforms that has persisted across multiple version ranges. This issue affects systems running GitLab versions 11.6 through 17.2.8, 17.3 through 17.3.4, and 17.4 through 17.4.1, creating a substantial attack surface for malicious actors seeking to escalate privileges within CI/CD environments. The flaw specifically enables unauthorized users to manipulate pipeline execution workflows to run under the context of other users, effectively bypassing standard access controls that should prevent such cross-user pipeline execution.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from insufficient validation of user permissions during pipeline triggering operations within GitLab's continuous integration framework. When users initiate pipeline runs through various interfaces including web UI, API endpoints, or automated triggers, the system fails to properly verify whether the initiating user has adequate authorization to execute pipelines under different user contexts. This weakness manifests particularly in scenarios involving project-level permissions, group-level access controls, and cross-project pipeline execution capabilities that are commonly utilized in enterprise development environments. The flaw is categorized under CWE-862, which specifically addresses insufficient authorization checks, making it a direct violation of fundamental security principles governing access control mechanisms.
The operational impact of CVE-2024-8970 extends beyond simple privilege escalation, creating potential for significant data compromise and system disruption within development environments. Attackers could leverage this vulnerability to execute unauthorized pipeline jobs that might access sensitive code repositories, trigger destructive operations against production systems, or gain access to confidential build artifacts and credentials stored within pipeline environments. In enterprise settings where GitLab serves as the central hub for software development workflows, this vulnerability could enable attackers to move laterally through development infrastructure, potentially accessing multiple projects and systems that share common CI/CD configurations. The attack vector aligns with ATT&CK technique T1078.004, which focuses on valid accounts and credential access, as the exploitation relies on legitimate user accounts to perform unauthorized actions.
Organizations utilizing GitLab in their development pipelines face substantial risk from this vulnerability, particularly those with complex permission structures and multiple development teams sharing common infrastructure. The vulnerability's persistence across multiple major version releases indicates a fundamental flaw in the authorization model that required patches across several release cycles. Security teams should prioritize immediate remediation efforts by upgrading to the patched versions 17.2.9, 17.3.5, or 17.4.2 respectively, while also implementing additional monitoring for unauthorized pipeline execution patterns. The mitigation strategy should include comprehensive audit logging of pipeline trigger events, implementation of stricter permission controls for pipeline execution, and regular security assessments of CI/CD environments to identify similar authorization weaknesses that could be exploited by attackers. Organizations should also consider implementing network segmentation and access control policies that limit the scope of pipeline execution privileges to minimize potential impact from such authorization bypasses.