Cross-project access via security policy bot impersonation
Published Feb 5, 2025 · Updated Feb 5, 2025
Incorrect user management in affected GitLab EE releases allows remote authenticated users to access other projects through bot-run pipelines. When a merged imported request deletes its source branch, MergeRequests::RetargetChainService refreshes chained requests under the preserved author identity and starts their pipelines. Exploitation requires a self-managed Ultimate instance with direct transfer, a runner, and a public project with a security policy bot; it exposes private repositories and CI variables and permits deployment changes.
Summary
What happened
Incorrect user management in affected GitLab EE releases allows remote authenticated users to access other projects through bot-run pipelines. When a merged imported request deletes its source branch, MergeRequests::RetargetChainService refreshes chained requests under the preserved author identity and starts their pipelines. Exploitation requires a self-managed Ultimate instance with direct transfer, a runner, and a public project with a security policy bot; it exposes private repositories and CI variables and permits deployment changes.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2024-6356
- Published
- Feb 5, 2025
- Updated
- Feb 5, 2025
- Vendor
- GitLab
- Product
- GitLab
- Classifications
- CWE-286, T1059
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Feb 5, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Feb 5, 2025Record 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.
- Affected versionversion=16.0 <17.0.6
- Affected versionversion=17.1 <17.1.4
- Affected versionversion=17.2 <17.2.2
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.
Public exploit references
- GitLab cross-project security policy bot reproductionfunctional · demonstrated
Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.
Technologies
Your stack
See the directory against your own environment.
Your stack
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