CVE-2023-6489: Inefficient Regular Expression Complexity in GitLab

Severity: medium (CVSS 6.5 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.6% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2024-04-12 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-1333

Description

A denial of service vulnerability was identified in GitLab CE/EE, versions 16.7.7 prior to 16.8.6, 16.9 prior to 16.9.4 and 16.10 prior to 16.10.2 which allows an attacker to spike the GitLab instance resources usage resulting in service degradation via chat integration feature.

Affected products

GitLab: from 16.7.7 before 16.8.6; from 16.9.0 before 16.9.4; from 16.10.0 before 16.10.2 — fixed in 16.10.2, 16.8.6, 16.9.4

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: GitLab 16.10.2, 16.8.6, 16.9.4. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/433520
https://hackerone.com/reports/2262450
https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/433520
https://hackerone.com/reports/2262450

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