A new cybersecurity vulnerability has been identified in GitLab Community Edition (CE) and Enterprise Edition (EE) that can lead to unauthorized access to sensitive information. This vulnerability, known as CVE-2023-2233, affects a range of GitLab versions and can compromise an organization's security by allowing project reporters to leak the owner's Sentry instance projects. In this post, we will discuss the details of the vulnerability, provide code snippets to help you understand its implications, and recommend mitigation strategies.

Vulnerability Details

CVE-2023-2233 is classified as an improper authorization issue in GitLab's CE/EE platforms. The affected GitLab versions are as follows:

All versions starting from 16.4 before 16.4.1

This vulnerability can be exploited by a project reporter to gain unauthorized access to sensitive information contained in the owner's Sentry instance projects. Sentry is a widely used error tracking and monitoring service that helps developers identify, triage, and resolve software issues faster. This can have serious consequences for organizations relying on GitLab to manage their software projects and can potentially expose sensitive information to malicious individuals.

Code Snippet

In this code snippet, we can see how a project reporter can exploit the vulnerability to leak the owner's Sentry instance projects:

// Assume that variable reporter represents a project reporter for a given project
// Assume that variable project represents the project in question
// Assume that variable ownerSentryProjects represents the owner's Sentry instance projects

if (reporter.isAuthorized('access', project)) {
  const leakedSentryProjects = ownerSentryProjects.get(project);
  console.log(Leaked Sentry Projects: ${JSON.stringify(leakedSentryProjects)});
}

This code snippet highlights how a project reporter can gain unauthorized access to the owner's Sentry instance projects by exploiting the improper authorization issue in GitLab CE/EE.

Original References

- GitLab's official security advisory for CVE-2023-2233: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/security/gitlab/-/issues/1
- Mitre's official CVE entry for CVE-2023-2233: https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2023-2233
- NIST's National Vulnerability Database (NVD) entry for CVE-2023-2233: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-2233

To exploit this vulnerability, a malicious project reporter can perform the following steps

1. Obtain project-level access to the owner's GitLab CE/EE installation.

Utilize the improper authorization issue to gain access to the owner's Sentry instance projects.

3. Retrieve sensitive information like error logs, stack traces, and other valuable data from the leaked Sentry projects.

This exploit could be used to steal valuable information, which can then be used for further malicious activity.

Mitigation Strategies

To protect your GitLab CE/EE installation from CVE-2023-2233, it is recommended to take the following steps:

16.4.1 or later for versions starting from 16.4

2. Regularly monitor and review your project reporters' access to ensure that they are only granted the necessary permissions.
3. Keep your Sentry instance projects separate from your GitLab projects and restrict access to them accordingly.

Conclusion

CVE-2023-2233 is a critical vulnerability that exposes sensitive information in GitLab CE/EE installations, allowing project reporters to leak the owner's Sentry instance projects. By understanding the exploit and implementing the appropriate mitigation strategies, organizations can minimize the risk of unauthorized access and protect their valuable data.

Timeline

Published on: 09/29/2023 07:15:00 UTC
Last modified on: 10/02/2023 19:51:00 UTC