Sidekiq crash via unbounded Helm metadata read
Published Feb 13, 2023 · Updated Mar 21, 2025
Resource exhaustion in GitLab allows remote authenticated users to crash Sidekiq by uploading a malicious Helm chart package. Packages::Helm::ExtractFileMetadataService.chart_yaml_content calls chart_yaml.read without a length limit, loading an inflated Chart.yaml into worker memory. The affected ranges are 14.0 through 15.6.6, 15.7.0 through 15.7.5, and 15.8.0; the Helm package registry must be enabled, and interrupted background jobs can stall CI pipelines.
Summary
What happened
Resource exhaustion in GitLab allows remote authenticated users to crash Sidekiq by uploading a malicious Helm chart package. Packages::Helm::ExtractFileMetadataService.chart_yaml_content calls chart_yaml.read without a length limit, loading an inflated Chart.yaml into worker memory. The affected ranges are 14.0 through 15.6.6, 15.7.0 through 15.7.5, and 15.8.0; the Helm package registry must be enabled, and interrupted background jobs can stall CI pipelines.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2023-0518
- Published
- Feb 13, 2023
- Updated
- Mar 21, 2025
- Vendor
- GitLab
- Product
- GitLab
- Classifications
- CWE-400, T1499.004
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Feb 13, 2023CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Mar 21, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
Compare your product and version with the public record. A matching version still requires validation against your environment.
Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=>=14.0, <15.6.7
- Affected versionversion=>=15.7, <15.7.6
- Affected versionversion=>=15.8, <15.8.1
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
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.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
- Malicious Helm Chart.yaml memory-exhaustion proof of conceptproof of concept · demonstrated
Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.
Technologies
Your stack
See the directory against your own environment.
Your stack
Check the software in your environment
Book a demo to see how Hinoki identifies affected software and validates exploitability in your environment.
Book a demo