CVE-2021-22181Network attack vector

Service interruption via recursive pipeline relationships

Published Jun 11, 2021 · Updated Aug 3, 2024

Resource exhaustion in affected GitLab CE/EE releases since 11.8 allows remote authenticated users to interrupt service via pipelines. Pipeline relationship handling accepts a recursive relationship and continues creating pipelines until server resources are exhausted. Low-privileged network access is sufficient, and the documented consequence is loss of service availability rather than data disclosure or modification.

CVSS severity7.7
High
EPSS probability1.06%
Next 30 days · Sep 16, 2026
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Based on sourced intelligence
Hinoki checkNot available
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Summary

What happened

Resource exhaustion in affected GitLab CE/EE releases since 11.8 allows remote authenticated users to interrupt service via pipelines. Pipeline relationship handling accepts a recursive relationship and continues creating pipelines until server resources are exhausted. Low-privileged network access is sufficient, and the documented consequence is loss of service availability rather than data disclosure or modification.

The record

CVE
CVE-2021-22181
Published
Jun 11, 2021
Updated
Aug 3, 2024
Vendor
GitLab
Product
GitLab
Classifications
CWE-400, T1499
Attack vector
network
Privileges
authenticated

Timeline

How it unfolded

  1. Jun 11, 2021CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
  2. Aug 3, 2024Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.

Exploitability

Present is not the same as exploitable

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Is a vulnerable build present?

Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.

  1. Affected versionversion=>=11.8, <13.10.5
  2. Affected versionversion=>=13.11, <13.11.5
  3. Affected versionversion=>=13.12, <13.12.2

What conditions does exploitation require?

Attack vectornetwork
Required privilegesauthenticated

What is affected?

GitLab · GitLabversion=>=11.8, <13.10.5; version=>=13.11, <13.11.5; version=>=13.12, <13.12.2

Published CVSS scores

6.5NIST NVDCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
7.7GitLab Inc.CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H
4.0NIST NVDAV:N/AC:L/Au:S/C:N/I:N/A:P

CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.

Attacks

What attackers are doing with it

Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.

Daily unique IPsNo honeypot observations are available for this CVE in the selected window.

No observations available

Sep 10, 2026Sep 16, 2026
Latest reporting daySep 16, 2026
Latest daily unique IPsUnavailable
Prior 30-day averageUnavailable
SourceShadowserver honeypots (KEV)
Vectornetwork
Privilegesauthenticated
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Public exploitUnconfirmed

Weakness, pattern, technique

CWE-400Uncontrolled Resource Consumption
T1499Endpoint Denial of Service

Public exploit references

No public exploit references are available in this record.

Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.

Technologies

Your stack

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Your stack

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