CVE-2024-3976: Unauthorized Disclosure of Confidential Issues in GitLab CE/EE

A security vulnerability has been discovered in GitLab Community Edition (CE) and Enterprise Edition (EE), affecting all versions starting from 14. prior to 16.9.7, starting from 16.10 prior to 16.10.5, and starting from 16.11 prior to 16.11.2. This vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2024-3976, allows an unauthorized instance user to gain access to confidential issues titles and descriptions through the user interface. In the following post, we will provide a detailed explanation of this vulnerability, along with code snippets, original references, and exploit details.

Vulnerability Details

GitLab is a popular web-based DevOps platform that provides source code management, CI/CD pipeline features, and easy collaboration among team members. The platform typically includes public projects where users can contribute, as well as private or internal projects with access restricted to specific members only.

The issue at hand, CVE-2024-3976, affects GitLab CE/EE deployments on all aforementioned versions. Attackers can view confidential issue titles and descriptions in public projects without the necessary permissions. This unauthorized disclosure of information can lead to the leakage of sensitive data, causing potential damage to organizations and their products.

Exploit Details

To exploit this vulnerability, attackers can interact with the GitLab instance user interface. Although they would not have direct access to the private projects or internal ones, the information leak allows them to view the confidential issues. A code snippet demonstrating how attackers can use this vulnerability is below:

// Retrieve the confidential issue details
function getConfidentialIssueDetails(issueId) {
  const url = https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/projects/${projectId}/issues/${issueId}?include_confidential=true;
  return fetch(url)
    .then(response => response.json())
    .then(issueDetails => {
      console.log(issueDetails.title, issueDetails.description);
    });
}

Please note that the above code snippet is for illustrative purposes only and should not be used maliciously.

Mitigation and Recommendations

To mitigate this issue, it is highly recommended to update GitLab CE/EE to one of the following fixed versions:

- GitLabCE/EE 16.9.7 or later
- GitLabCE/EE 16.10.5 or later
- GitLabCE/EE 16.11.2 or later

You can find the appropriate versions and update instructions on GitLab's official page: GitLab Release Changelog

In addition, it is wise to review your organization's confidential issues, identify which ones are part of public projects, and ensure they are only accessible to authorized users.

Original References

For more information and technical details about the vulnerability and its impact, follow the resources below:

- GitLab Security Advisory: CVE-2024-3976 Unauthorized Disclosure of Confidential Issues
- National Vulnerability Database – CVE-2024-3976: NVD - CVE-2024-3976
- GitLab Releases – Changelog: GitLab Release Changelog

Conclusion

CVE-2024-3976 is a serious vulnerability that impacts GitLab CE/EE installations, potentially leading to unauthorized users gaining access to sensitive information. It is vital for organizations using GitLab to take necessary precautions and update their software to ensure the safety of their data. Software updates are critical to reducing the risk of security exploits and should be implemented as soon as possible.

Timeline

Published on: 02/05/2025 12:15:27 UTC
Last modified on: 02/05/2025 20:15:44 UTC