Privilege escalation via group-sharing role validation bypass
Published Sep 26, 2025 · Updated Sep 26, 2025
Improper access control in affected GitLab EE releases allows remote authenticated users to escalate privileges through group sharing. The group-sharing invitation path fails to enforce the custom-role ceiling applied to direct invitations, letting a Developer assign a more powerful custom role. Exploitation requires Enterprise Edition, a Developer-based custom role with Manage Group Member, and a target group that can be shared.
Summary
What happened
Improper access control in affected GitLab EE releases allows remote authenticated users to escalate privileges through group sharing. The group-sharing invitation path fails to enforce the custom-role ceiling applied to direct invitations, letting a Developer assign a more powerful custom role. Exploitation requires Enterprise Edition, a Developer-based custom role with Manage Group Member, and a target group that can be shared.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2025-7691
- Published
- Sep 26, 2025
- Updated
- Sep 26, 2025
- Vendor
- GitLab
- Product
- GitLab
- Classifications
- CWE-267, 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
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
- Shared-group custom-role escalation reproductionproof of concept · demonstrated
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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