CVE-2026-101168 in GitLab
Summary
by MITRE • 10/13/2026
GitLab has remediated an issue in GitLab CE/EE affecting all versions from 12.0 before 19.2.8, 19.3 before 19.3.5, and 19.4 before 19.4.2 that, under certain conditions, could have allowed an authenticated user with access to GitLab Pages log data to obtain access tokens and other secrets, due to insertion of sensitive request data into log files and error tracking events.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/18/2026
The vulnerability in question represents a critical information disclosure flaw within the logging infrastructure of GitLab Community Edition and Enterprise Edition, affecting versions ranging from 12.0 up to specific patch releases including 19.2.8, 19.3.5, and 19.4.2. This issue stems from an improper handling of sensitive data during request processing, where the application inadvertently logs or transmits confidential information such as authentication tokens, session cookies, and other secrets to log files and error tracking services. The root cause lies in the failure to sanitize or mask these high-value credentials before they are written to persistent storage or sent to external monitoring systems, creating a significant security gap that undermines the confidentiality of user data even when access controls appear intact.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability allows any authenticated user who possesses permissions to view GitLab Pages log data to extract sensitive information belonging to other users or system components. While the attacker is required to have some level of authentication and specific read access to logs, the ease with which these tokens can be extracted poses a severe risk. Once obtained, these access tokens can be used by an adversary to impersonate legitimate users, escalate privileges within the GitLab instance, or potentially pivot into other connected systems if those credentials are reused across different services. This scenario effectively bypasses authentication mechanisms for downstream applications that trust the compromised tokens, leading to unauthorized data access and potential compromise of the entire deployment environment.
The technical classification of this flaw aligns with CWE-532, which covers Information Exposure Through Log Files, as well as CWE-798, concerning the use of hardcoded or easily guessable credentials in contexts where dynamic secrets are expected but improperly managed during logging operations. In terms of adversary behavior mapping under the MITRE ATT&CK framework, this vulnerability facilitates the T1005 technique, which involves Data from Local System Retrieval. Attackers can leverage their authorized access to log files as a reconnaissance vector to harvest credentials without triggering typical intrusion detection alerts associated with brute-force attacks or direct exploitation attempts against authentication endpoints.
Mitigation strategies must prioritize immediate version upgrades to address this flaw at the source code level. Administrators should upgrade GitLab CE/EE to versions 19.2.8, 19.3.5, or 19.4.2 and later, depending on their current release track, as these releases contain the necessary patches for sanitizing sensitive request data before it enters log streams. In addition to upgrading, organizations should implement strict access controls around log file visibility, ensuring that only essential security personnel have read permissions rather than broad authenticated user access. Furthermore, integrating secret scanning tools and rotating all potentially exposed tokens immediately is critical to neutralize any damage resulting from prior exploitation attempts where sensitive data may have already been harvested by malicious actors exploiting this vulnerability window.