CVE-2022-2931Public exploitNetwork attack vector

Denial of service via Markdown rendering exhaustion

Published Oct 17, 2022 · Updated May 13, 2025

Denial of service in GitLab CE/EE before 15.1.6, 15.2 through 15.2.3, and 15.3 through 15.3.1 allows remote attackers to exhaust CPU. ReferenceExtractor passes attacker-controlled issue-description text to Renderer.cache_collection_render, where deeply repeated Markdown image syntax consumes a CPU core until the 60-second request timeout. The unauthenticated Markdown preview API exposes the path remotely; parallel requests can occupy multiple CPU cores and make the server unavailable without disclosing or altering data.

CVSS severity7.5
High
EPSS probability1.16%
Next 30 days · Sep 16, 2026
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Based on sourced intelligence
Hinoki checkNot available
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Summary

What happened

Denial of service in GitLab CE/EE before 15.1.6, 15.2 through 15.2.3, and 15.3 through 15.3.1 allows remote attackers to exhaust CPU. ReferenceExtractor passes attacker-controlled issue-description text to Renderer.cache_collection_render, where deeply repeated Markdown image syntax consumes a CPU core until the 60-second request timeout. The unauthenticated Markdown preview API exposes the path remotely; parallel requests can occupy multiple CPU cores and make the server unavailable without disclosing or altering data.

The record

CVE
CVE-2022-2931
Published
Oct 17, 2022
Updated
May 13, 2025
Vendor
GitLab
Product
GitLab
Classifications
CWE-400, T1499.004
Attack vector
network
Privileges
unauthenticated

Timeline

How it unfolded

  1. Oct 17, 2022CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
  2. May 13, 2025Record 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=<15.1.6
  2. Affected versionversion=>=15.2, <15.2.4
  3. Affected versionversion=>=15.3, <15.3.2

What conditions does exploitation require?

Attack vectornetwork
Required privilegesunauthenticated

What is affected?

GitLab · GitLabversion=<15.1.6; version=>=15.2, <15.2.4; version=>=15.3, <15.3.2

Published CVSS scores

7.5GitLab Inc.CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

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
Privilegesunauthenticated
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Public exploitPublished

Weakness, pattern, technique

CWE-400Uncontrolled Resource Consumption
T1499.004Application or System Exploitation

Public exploit references

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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