CVE-2026-2238 in Community Edition
Summary
by MITRE • 06/25/2026
GitLab has remediated an issue in GitLab CE/EE affecting all versions from 17.5 before 18.11.6, 19.0 before 19.0.3, and 19.1 before 19.1.1 that under certain conditions could have allowed an unauthenticated user to view confidential issue references on public projects due to improper authorization checks.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 06/25/2026
This vulnerability represents a critical authorization flaw in GitLab's access control mechanisms that could have exposed sensitive issue references to unauthorized users. The vulnerability exists within GitLab Community Edition and Enterprise Edition across multiple version ranges, specifically affecting versions from 17.5 before 18.11.6, 19.0 before 19.0.3, and 19.1 before 19.1.1. The flaw stems from insufficient authorization checks that fail to properly validate user permissions when accessing issue references within public projects. This represents a direct violation of the principle of least privilege and could potentially allow threat actors to discover confidential information about project issues without proper authentication.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability involves GitLab's handling of issue reference data where the system fails to adequately verify whether a requesting user has appropriate authorization levels to access specific issue details. When users attempt to access issue references within public projects, the system should validate that the referenced issues are indeed accessible to unauthenticated users or properly restrict access based on project visibility settings. However, the flawed implementation allows unauthorized access to confidential issue information through direct API calls or web interface navigation that bypasses proper authorization checks.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple information disclosure as it could enable attackers to gather intelligence about project activities, identify potential security weaknesses, and understand the development workflow of organizations using GitLab. This type of vulnerability aligns with CWE-284 which specifically addresses improper access control in software systems. The exposure of confidential issue references could reveal sensitive information including but not limited to bug details, feature requests, security vulnerabilities being addressed, and project timelines that may be valuable for targeted attacks or competitive intelligence gathering.
Organizations using affected GitLab versions face significant risk as this vulnerability could be exploited by automated scanning tools or manual attackers who identify the specific API endpoints or URL patterns that trigger the authorization bypass. The issue particularly affects public projects where users might expect only publicly available information to be accessible, but the flaw allows access to metadata and references that should remain restricted based on project configuration and issue visibility settings.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability include immediate upgrade to patched versions of GitLab CE/EE as recommended by the vendor, implementing additional network-level controls such as firewall rules to restrict access to sensitive API endpoints, and conducting comprehensive audits of existing project configurations to identify any potential exposure. Organizations should also consider implementing web application firewalls that can detect and block suspicious patterns of access to issue-related endpoints. The remediation process should include thorough testing to ensure that authorization checks are properly enforced across all project types and visibility settings. This vulnerability demonstrates the critical importance of proper authorization validation in multi-tenant systems and aligns with ATT&CK technique T1566 which covers credential harvesting through various attack vectors including API access and web application exploitation.