CVE-2024-4472 - GitLab Vulnerability Affects Dependency Proxy Credentials Retention in GraphQL Logs

CVE-2024-4472 is a recently discovered security vulnerability in GitLab, one of the most popular web-based DevOps lifecycle tools. This issue affects Community Edition (CE) and Enterprise Edition (EE) of GitLab, specifically impacting all versions starting from 16.5 up to and including version 17.3.2. More precisely, if you're running any of the GitLab CE/EE versions:

Then this vulnerability may impact you.

The crux of this security weakness lies in the retention of sensitive dependency proxy credentials within GraphQL logs. Exposing these credentials can lead to unauthorized access and potential damage to repositories and projects using GitLab.

In this long-read post, we will break down the key aspects of the CVE-2024-4472 vulnerability, provide code snippets to better understand it, share links to original references for technical documentation, and explain potential exploit avenues.

Understanding CVE-2024-4472

When developers authenticate themselves for using GitLab's Dependency Proxy feature, their credentials are supposed to be securely managed by GitLab. However, this vulnerability concerns the inadvertent storage of these credentials in GraphQL logs.

Here's a code snippet demonstrating the situation

// Login function for the dependency proxy
function login(username, password) {
  // ...
  // Authenticate the user with entered credentials
  let isAuthenticated = authenticate(username, password);

  if (isAuthenticated) {
    // Issue: The sensitive data (username and password) is logged
    console.log(User ${username} authenticated successfully with password ${password}.);
  }
  // ...
}

In the above snippet, the hypothetical login() function logs out sensitive data, namely usernames and passwords of users authenticating with GitLab's Dependency Proxy feature.

Original references

GitLab has acknowledged and documented the CVE-2024-4472 vulnerability in their official security advisory. For additional details and technical specifications, you can refer to GitLab's original references:

- GitLab Security Advisory
- GitLab Issue Tracker

Exploiting CVE-2024-4472

This vulnerability's criticality lies in the potential for bad actors to gain unauthorized access to Dependency Proxy credentials in GitLab projects. This may lead to unauthorized code changes, data breaches, or even reputational damage to organizations using GitLab.

Perform a series of malicious activities under the disguise of authenticated users.

3. Leverage the obtained information to perform other attacks against the affected GitLab instance, gaining even broader access or control over stored data.

Protecting against CVE-2024-4472

To mitigate the risks associated with this vulnerability, GitLab has released patches for the affected versions. Following that, it is highly recommended to update your GitLab instance to a patched version like the ones mentioned below:

- GitLab CE/EE 17.1.x: Update to version 17.1.7 or later
- GitLab CE/EE 17.2.x: Update to version 17.2.5 or later
- GitLab CE/EE 17.3.x: Update to version 17.3.2 or later

Updating to a patched version will fix the improper logging problem and prevent dependency proxy credentials from being exposed in the GraphQL logs.

Conclusion

CVE-2024-4472 is a critical vulnerability in the widely-used GitLab platform that necessitates immediate attention and response. Affected users should prioritize updating their GitLab instances to patched versions to protect against this vulnerability and ensure the secure handling of Dependency Proxy credentials.

Having a proactive approach to security and staying informed of newly discovered vulnerabilities will help you better protect your valuable data and maintain the trust of your users and clients.

Timeline

Published on: 09/12/2024 19:15:04 UTC
Last modified on: 09/12/2024 21:34:55 UTC