CVE-2023-2442Public exploitNetwork attack vector

Victim-account actions via HTML-safe fork branch names

Published Jun 7, 2023 · Updated Jan 7, 2025

Stored XSS in GitLab CE/EE 15.11 through 15.11.6 and 16.0 through 16.0.1 allows remote authenticated users to act as victims. The merge-request branch-title helper marks an attacker-controlled fork source branch as HTML-safe, allowing crafted markup to bypass escaping and execute in the viewer's browser. Exploitation requires permission to create the branch and merge request plus a victim who views it; resulting actions are limited by that victim's GitLab privileges.

CVSS severity8.7
High
EPSS probability96.06%
Next 30 days · Sep 16, 2026
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Based on sourced intelligence
Hinoki checkNot available
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Summary

What happened

Stored XSS in GitLab CE/EE 15.11 through 15.11.6 and 16.0 through 16.0.1 allows remote authenticated users to act as victims. The merge-request branch-title helper marks an attacker-controlled fork source branch as HTML-safe, allowing crafted markup to bypass escaping and execute in the viewer's browser. Exploitation requires permission to create the branch and merge request plus a victim who views it; resulting actions are limited by that victim's GitLab privileges.

The record

CVE
CVE-2023-2442
Published
Jun 7, 2023
Updated
Jan 7, 2025
Vendor
GitLab
Product
GitLab
Classifications
CWE-79, T1203
Attack vector
network
Privileges
authenticated

Timeline

How it unfolded

  1. Jun 7, 2023CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
  2. 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.

  1. Affected versionversion=>=15.11, <15.11.7
  2. Affected versionversion=>=16.0, <16.0.2

What conditions does exploitation require?

Attack vectornetwork
Required privilegesauthenticated

What is affected?

GitLab · GitLabversion=>=15.11, <15.11.7; version=>=16.0, <16.0.2

Published CVSS scores

8.7GitLab Inc.CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N
5.4NIST NVDCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N

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-79Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
T1203Exploitation for Client Execution

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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