Approval bypass via orphaned policy record cleanup
Published May 14, 2026 · Updated May 14, 2026
Missing authorization in affected GitLab EE releases allows remote authenticated users to bypass merge request approval requirements. The cleanup path mishandles orphaned policy records, leaving approval enforcement without the authorization state needed to block an unapproved merge. Exploitation requires an authenticated account, an applicable approval-policy workflow, and user interaction; the bounded consequence is an otherwise unapproved merge.
Summary
What happened
Missing authorization in affected GitLab EE releases allows remote authenticated users to bypass merge request approval requirements. The cleanup path mishandles orphaned policy records, leaving approval enforcement without the authorization state needed to block an unapproved merge. Exploitation requires an authenticated account, an applicable approval-policy workflow, and user interaction; the bounded consequence is an otherwise unapproved merge.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-6883
- Published
- May 14, 2026
- Updated
- May 14, 2026
- Vendor
- GitLab
- Product
- GitLab
- Classifications
- CWE-862, T1562.001
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- authenticated
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=15.7 <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?
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.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
No public exploit references are available in this record.
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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