GitLab, a widely used platform for DevOps lifecycle management, has released critical security patches to address multiple vulnerabilities in its Community Edition (CE) and Enterprise Edition (EE). The most severe of these vulnerabilities, tracked as CVE-2024-8114, allows attackers to escalate privileges by exploiting a compromised Personal Access Token (PAT). This issue affects all versions of GitLab CE/EE from 8.12 up to but not including the latest patched versions: 17.4.5, 17.5.3, and 17.6.1. With a high CVSS score of 8.2, the flaw poses a significant risk to confidentiality and integrity, highlighting its potential for exploitation in various environments.
In addition to the privilege escalation vulnerability, GitLab’s patch addresses several medium-severity issues that could impact the platform’s security. One such issue, CVE-2024-8237, involves the ability of attackers to craft malicious cargo.toml files that could exhaust server resources, resulting in a denial-of-service (DoS) condition. Another vulnerability, CVE-2024-11669, allows unauthorized access to sensitive data through the overly broad application of token scopes. Both issues were responsibly reported by security researchers, underscoring the importance of collaboration between vendors and the security community in identifying and mitigating risks.
GitLab also patched vulnerabilities related to DoS attacks, including CVE-2024-8177, which could be triggered through integration with a malicious harbor registry, and CVE-2024-11828, which exploits crafted API calls to cause resource exhaustion. Additionally, CVE-2024-11668 addresses a gap in token revocation, potentially granting unauthorized access to streaming endpoints if tokens were not properly invalidated. These fixes help strengthen GitLab’s resilience against a variety of attack vectors, ensuring that sensitive data and services are protected.
Given the critical nature of these vulnerabilities, GitLab strongly advises all users with self-managed installations to upgrade to the latest versions immediately. The company has already applied the necessary patches to its GitLab.com platform, and GitLab Dedicated customers are not required to take further action. Regular patching remains essential to maintaining a secure environment, and organizations using GitLab are encouraged to remain vigilant and implement updates without delay to safeguard against potential exploits. The timely release of these updates highlights GitLab’s commitment to maintaining high-security standards and protecting its users from evolving cybersecurity threats.
