Original Article Text

Click to Toggle View

GitLab warns of critical zero-click account hijacking vulnerability. GitLab has released security updates for both the Community and Enterprise Edition to address two critical vulnerabilities, one of them allowing account hijacking with no user interaction. The vendor strongly recommends updating as soon as possible all vulnerable versions of the DevSecOps platform (manual update required for self-hosted installations) and warns that if there is "no specific deployment type (omnibus, source code, helm chart, etc.) of a product is mentioned, this means all types are affected.” Vulnerability details The most critical security issue GitLab patched has the maximum severity score (10 out of 10) and is being tracked as CVE-2023-7028. Successful exploitation does not require any interaction. It is an authentication problem that permits password reset requests to be sent to arbitrary, unverified email addresses, allowing account takeover. If two-factor authentication (2FA) is active, it is possible to reset the password but the second authentication factor is still needed for successful login. Hijacking a GitLab account can have a significant impact on an organization since the platform is typically used to host proprietary code, API keys and other sensitive data. Another risk is that of supply chain attacks where attackers can compromise repositories by inserting malicious code in live environments when GitLab is used for CI/CD (Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment). The issue was discovered and reported to GitLab by security researcher ‘Asterion’ via the HackerOne bug bounty platform and was introduced on May 1, 2023, with version 16.1.0. The following versions are impacted: The flaw was addressed in GitLab versions 16.7.2, 16.5.6, and 16.6.4, and the fix has also been backported to 16.1.6, 16.2.9, and 16.3.7. GitLab says it has not detected any cases of active exploitation of CVE-2023-7028 but shared the following signs of compromise for defenders: The second critical problem is identified as CVE-2023-5356 and has a severity score of 9.6 out of 10. An attacker could exploit it to abuse Slack/Mattermost integrations to execute slash commands as another user. In Mattermost, slash commands allow integrating external applications into the workspace and in Slack they act as shortcuts for invoking apps in the mesasge composer box. The rest of the flaws that GitLab fixed in version 16.7.2 are: For instructions and official update resources, check out GitLab’s update page. For Gitlab Runner, visit this webpage.

Daily Brief Summary

CYBERCRIME // GitLab Updates Fix Critical Zero-Click Account Hijacking Flaw

GitLab has issued security updates to remediate two critical vulnerabilities, including a zero-click account hijacking risk with a severity score of 10/10, tracked as CVE-2023-7028.

The vulnerability allows attackers to send password reset requests to arbitrary email addresses, enabling potential account takeovers, although 2FA still protects against unauthorized access.

Users of the DevSecOps platform, across all deployment types, are urged to update promptly to avoid exploitation that can lead to significant security implications such as supply chain attacks.

The security flaw, introduced on May 1, 2023, with GitLab version 16.1.0, affects multiple versions; GitLab has since provided patches for 16.7.2, 16.5.6, 16.6.4, and backported fixes to earlier versions.

While no active exploitations have been detected, GitLab has communicated signs of compromise for defenders to monitor.

A separate critical issue, CVE-2023-5356 with a 9.6 severity score, involves the abuse of Slack/Mattermost integrations to execute commands as other users.

GitLab has also resolved other security issues in version 16.7.2 and encourages users to see the official update resources for instructions.