CVE-2026-13210 in GitLab
Summary
by MITRE • 09/15/2026
GitLab has remediated an issue in GitLab CE/EE affecting all versions from 15.7 before 19.1.8, 19.2 before 19.2.6, and 19.3 before 19.3.2 that under certain conditions could have allowed an authenticated user to access CI/CD variables outside their intended environment scope due to improper input validation in the environment scope pattern matcher.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/15/2026
GitLab has addressed a significant security vulnerability affecting its Community Edition and Enterprise Edition across multiple version ranges, specifically versions prior to 19.1.8 for releases starting at 15.7, versions before 19.2.6 for the 19.2 series, and versions before 19.3.2 for the 19.3 series. This flaw stems from an improper input validation mechanism within the environment scope pattern matcher used in GitLab CI/CD configurations. The vulnerability allows authenticated users to bypass intended environmental boundaries, potentially exposing sensitive configuration variables that are meant to be isolated within specific deployment environments such as production or staging.
The technical root cause lies in how the system processes and validates regular expressions or string patterns defined for environment scopes. When a user defines an environment scope pattern, GitLab uses this pattern to determine which CI/CD jobs can access certain protected variables. Due to insufficient validation of these input patterns, it is possible to craft specific inputs that exploit ambiguities or edge cases in the matching logic. This allows an attacker who has authenticated access to a project to manipulate the scope resolution process, effectively tricking the system into granting access to CI/CD variables associated with different environments than intended.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability poses a severe risk to the integrity and confidentiality of deployment pipelines. CI/CD variables often contain critical secrets such as API keys, database credentials, cloud provider tokens, or private SSH keys. If these values are exposed outside their designated environment scope, they could be leaked through logs, error messages, or by being passed to unauthorized jobs in other environments. This breach of isolation undermines the security model that relies on strict separation between development, testing, and production stages, potentially leading to data exfiltration, unauthorized access to external services, or further compromise of downstream infrastructure.
This issue aligns with CWE-20 Improper Input Validation, as the system failed to adequately sanitize or validate user-supplied input before using it in a security-critical decision-making process regarding variable accessibility. Furthermore, from an adversary perspective, this vulnerability facilitates lateral movement within the CI/CD pipeline and could be leveraged for credential theft, mapping closely to ATT&CK techniques related to Collection of Application Data or Credential Access via Unsecured Credentials. The ability to access variables outside their scope represents a failure in enforcing least privilege principles within the automation workflow.
To mitigate this risk, organizations running affected versions must upgrade GitLab immediately to version 19.1.8 or later for the 15.x and earlier branches, version 19.2.6 or later for the 19.2 branch, or version 19.3.2 or later for the 19.3 branch. Until an upgrade is performed, administrators should audit CI/CD configurations to ensure that no sensitive variables are defined with overly permissive environment scopes and consider restricting access to project settings where scope patterns can be modified. Additionally, reviewing pipeline logs for any anomalous variable usage during the window of exposure may help identify if the vulnerability was actively exploited in a specific instance.