CVE-2023-1787Public exploitNetwork attack vector

Issue-listing timeouts via HTML-comment regex backtracking

Published Apr 5, 2023 · Updated Feb 10, 2025

Regular-expression denial of service in GitLab 15.9 through 15.9.3 and 15.10.0 allows remote authenticated users to trigger search timeouts. Taskable.get_tasks applies a backtracking multiline HTML-comment expression to issue descriptions, and a malformed comment makes it scan a large description until the request times out. Guest access can be sufficient where issue creation is enabled; affected issue views and listings stall, and multiple crafted issues can impair browsing without crashing the instance.

CVSS severity5.3
Medium
EPSS probability0.75%
Next 30 days · Sep 16, 2026
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Based on sourced intelligence
Hinoki checkNot available
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Summary

What happened

Regular-expression denial of service in GitLab 15.9 through 15.9.3 and 15.10.0 allows remote authenticated users to trigger search timeouts. Taskable.get_tasks applies a backtracking multiline HTML-comment expression to issue descriptions, and a malformed comment makes it scan a large description until the request times out. Guest access can be sufficient where issue creation is enabled; affected issue views and listings stall, and multiple crafted issues can impair browsing without crashing the instance.

The record

CVE
CVE-2023-1787
Published
Apr 5, 2023
Updated
Feb 10, 2025
Vendor
GitLab
Product
GitLab
Classifications
CWE-400, T1499
Attack vector
network
Privileges
authenticated

Timeline

How it unfolded

  1. Apr 5, 2023CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
  2. Feb 10, 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=>=15.10, <15.10.1
  2. Affected versionversion=>=15.9, <15.9.4

What conditions does exploitation require?

Attack vectornetwork
Required privilegesauthenticated

What is affected?

GitLab · GitLabversion=>=15.10, <15.10.1; version=>=15.9, <15.9.4

Published CVSS scores

5.3NIST NVDCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L

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 exploitPublished

Weakness, pattern, technique

CWE-400Uncontrolled Resource Consumption
T1499Endpoint Denial of Service

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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