CVE-2026-7492 in GitLab
Summary
by MITRE • 07/09/2026
GitLab has remediated an issue in GitLab CE/EE affecting all versions from 9.1 before 18.11.7, 19.0 before 19.0.4, and 19.1 before 19.1.2 that under certain conditions could have allowed an unauthenticated user to determine the existence of a private project due to improper authorization controls on cross-project reference pages.
Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.
Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 07/09/2026
This vulnerability represents a critical authorization bypass flaw in GitLab Community Edition and Enterprise Edition products that persisted across multiple version streams. The issue stems from inadequate access control mechanisms within the cross-project reference page functionality, which allowed unauthorized individuals to discover the existence of private projects through indirect means. The vulnerability affects versions prior to 18.11.7, 19.0.4, and 19.1.2 respectively, indicating a widespread impact across several major release branches. This type of information disclosure vulnerability falls under CWE-284 which specifically addresses improper access control in software systems, where insufficient authorization checks permit unauthorized access to protected resources.
The technical implementation flaw manifests when users attempt to access cross-project reference pages without authentication credentials. Under normal circumstances, such pages should only be accessible to authorized members of projects, but the vulnerability enables unauthenticated users to infer whether specific private projects exist within the GitLab instance. This occurs through subtle differences in response patterns or error messages that reveal project existence even when direct access is denied. The flaw exploits the principle of least privilege by failing to properly validate user authorization status before exposing potentially sensitive information about project accessibility.
Operationally, this vulnerability creates significant security implications for organizations relying on GitLab for code management and collaboration. An attacker could systematically enumerate private projects within a GitLab instance, potentially identifying sensitive repositories containing proprietary code, infrastructure configurations, or other confidential information. The impact extends beyond simple information disclosure as it enables more sophisticated attacks such as targeted reconnaissance, social engineering campaigns, or subsequent exploitation attempts against identified private projects. This vulnerability directly aligns with ATT&CK technique T1069.003 which involves discovering application and system vulnerabilities, and T1580 which focuses on obtaining access to cloud environments through enumeration of resources.
Organizations should immediately implement mitigations including updating to the patched versions mentioned in the advisory, reviewing existing access controls for cross-project functionality, and implementing additional monitoring for unusual access patterns targeting project references. Network segmentation and firewall rules can provide additional defense-in-depth measures while regular security audits should verify that no unauthorized access paths exist within GitLab configurations. The remediation process requires careful attention to ensure that all affected versions are properly patched across the entire deployment environment, including any secondary or backup systems that may host GitLab instances.