Account takeover via unvalidated abuse-report return URL
Published Jun 7, 2023 · Updated Jan 7, 2025
Reflected XSS in GitLab CE/EE allows remote authenticated users to perform arbitrary actions as victims through a crafted abuse-report link. The abuse-report controller accepts the ref_url parameter without scheme validation, and the form renders it as the Cancel destination. Exploitation requires a signed-in victim to open the link and activate Cancel; on affected self-managed instances, the resulting script can access the victim's account.
Summary
What happened
Reflected XSS in GitLab CE/EE allows remote authenticated users to perform arbitrary actions as victims through a crafted abuse-report link. The abuse-report controller accepts the ref_url parameter without scheme validation, and the form renders it as the Cancel destination. Exploitation requires a signed-in victim to open the link and activate Cancel; on affected self-managed instances, the resulting script can access the victim's account.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2023-2015
- Published
- Jun 7, 2023
- Updated
- Jan 7, 2025
- Vendor
- GitLab
- Product
- GitLab
- Classifications
- CWE-79, T1189
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Jun 7, 2023CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Jan 7, 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.
- Affected versionversion=>=15.11, <15.11.7
- Affected versionversion=> 15.8, <15.10.8
- Affected versionversion=>=16.0, <16.0.2
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
- Reflected XSS in Report Abuse Functionality reproductionproof of concept · demonstrated
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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