Maintainer-level approval-rule tampering via unchecked GraphQL mutations
Published May 14, 2026 · Updated May 14, 2026
Missing authorization in GitLab EE allows remote authenticated users with Maintainer permissions to alter project approval rules. The GraphQL approval-rule mutations omit the authorization check that should enforce instance-level prevention of approval-rule editing. Exploitation requires that prevention setting to be enabled; successful requests can modify or delete project approval rules.
Summary
What happened
Missing authorization in GitLab EE allows remote authenticated users with Maintainer permissions to alter project approval rules. The GraphQL approval-rule mutations omit the authorization check that should enforce instance-level prevention of approval-rule editing. Exploitation requires that prevention setting to be enabled; successful requests can modify or delete project approval rules.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-2900
- Published
- May 14, 2026
- Updated
- May 14, 2026
- Vendor
- GitLab
- Product
- GitLab
- Classifications
- CWE-862, T1685
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- admin
Timeline
How it unfolded
- May 14, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- May 14, 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=16.10 <18.9.7
- Affected versionversion=18.10 <18.10.6
- Affected versionversion=18.11 <18.11.3
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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