CVE-2023-2181

Severity: medium (CVSS 6.5 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.7% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2023-05-12 · updated 2026-06-17

Description

An issue has been discovered in GitLab affecting all versions before 15.9.8, 15.10.0 before 15.10.7, and 15.11.0 before 15.11.3. A malicious developer could use a git feature called refs/replace to smuggle content into a merge request which would not be visible during review in the UI.

Affected products

GitLab: before 15.9.8; from 15.10.0 before 15.10.7; from 15.11.0 before 15.11.3 — fixed in 15.10.7, 15.11.3, 15.9.8

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: GitLab 15.10.7, 15.11.3, 15.9.8. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/cves/-/blob/master/2023/CVE-2023-2181.json
https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/407859
https://hackerone.com/reports/1938185
https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/cves/-/blob/master/2023/CVE-2023-2181.json
https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/407859
https://hackerone.com/reports/1938185

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