Maintainer privilege escalation via unchecked role assignment
Published Sep 26, 2025 · Updated Sep 26, 2025
Missing authorization in GitLab EE allows remote authenticated users with Maintainer access to grant permissions exceeding their own. The custom-role assignment workflow accepts a role without enforcing that its permissions are bounded by the acting Maintainer's authorization level. Project Maintainer access and an available custom role are required; assigning that role enables unauthorized privilege elevation within the project.
Summary
What happened
Missing authorization in GitLab EE allows remote authenticated users with Maintainer access to grant permissions exceeding their own. The custom-role assignment workflow accepts a role without enforcing that its permissions are bounded by the acting Maintainer's authorization level. Project Maintainer access and an available custom role are required; assigning that role enables unauthorized privilege elevation within the project.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2025-10871
- Published
- Sep 26, 2025
- Updated
- Sep 26, 2025
- Vendor
- GitLab
- Product
- GitLab
- Classifications
- CWE-862, T1098
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Sep 26, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Sep 26, 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=16.6 <18.2.7
- Affected versionversion=18.3 <18.3.3
- Affected versionversion=18.4 <18.4.1
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
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Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
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Public exploit references
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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