User impersonation via unfinished imported CI jobs
Published Oct 2, 2023 · Updated Apr 7, 2026
Incorrect authorization in affected GitLab EE releases allows remote authenticated users to impersonate users through direct group imports. The project import relation factory restores unfinished CI pipelines and jobs from transfer data without canceling them, allowing imported work to retain another user's execution identity. An Ultimate license, an authenticated account able to use direct transfer, and the enabled direct-transfer feature are required; the consequence is pipeline execution attributed to another user.
Summary
What happened
Incorrect authorization in affected GitLab EE releases allows remote authenticated users to impersonate users through direct group imports. The project import relation factory restores unfinished CI pipelines and jobs from transfer data without canceling them, allowing imported work to retain another user's execution identity. An Ultimate license, an authenticated account able to use direct transfer, and the enabled direct-transfer feature are required; the consequence is pipeline execution attributed to another user.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2023-5106
- Published
- Oct 2, 2023
- Updated
- Apr 7, 2026
- Vendor
- GitLab
- Product
- GitLab
- Classifications
- CWE-863, T1656
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Oct 2, 2023CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Apr 7, 2026Record 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=13.12 <16.2.8
- Affected versionversion=16.3.0 <16.3.5
- Affected versionversion=16.4.0 <16.4.1
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
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.
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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