CVE-2023-3915Network attack vector

External-to-internal privilege escalation via service account creation

Published Sep 1, 2023 · Updated May 13, 2026

Privilege escalation in GitLab EE 16.1 before 16.1.5, 16.2 before 16.2.5, and 16.3 before 16.3.1 allows attackers to gain internal access. Group owners marked external can create a group service account, but the creation path fails to propagate the external classification to the new account. Exploitation requires an authenticated external user with Owner access to a group; the resulting account can access otherwise restricted internal projects.

CVSS severity6.5
Medium
EPSS probability0.68%
Next 30 days · Sep 16, 2026
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Based on sourced intelligence
Hinoki checkNot available
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Summary

What happened

Privilege escalation in GitLab EE 16.1 before 16.1.5, 16.2 before 16.2.5, and 16.3 before 16.3.1 allows attackers to gain internal access. Group owners marked external can create a group service account, but the creation path fails to propagate the external classification to the new account. Exploitation requires an authenticated external user with Owner access to a group; the resulting account can access otherwise restricted internal projects.

The record

CVE
CVE-2023-3915
Published
Sep 1, 2023
Updated
May 13, 2026
Vendor
GitLab
Product
GitLab
Classifications
CWE-732, CWE-279, T1136
Attack vector
network
Privileges
admin

Timeline

How it unfolded

  1. Sep 1, 2023CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
  2. May 13, 2026Record 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.

  1. Affected versionversion=16.1 <16.1.5
  2. Affected versionversion=16.2 <16.2.5
  3. Affected versionversion=16.3 <16.3.1

What conditions does exploitation require?

Attack vectornetwork
Required privilegesadmin

What is affected?

GitLab · GitLabversion=16.1 <16.1.5; version=16.2 <16.2.5; version=16.3 <16.3.1

Published CVSS scores

6.5GitLab Inc.CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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
Privilegesadmin
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Public exploitUnconfirmed

Weakness, pattern, technique

CWE-732Incorrect Permission Assignment for Critical Resource
CWE-279Incorrect Execution-Assigned Permissions
T1136Create Account

Public exploit references

No public exploit references are available in this record.

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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