CVE-2024-9164: 
GitLab vulnerability analysis and mitigation

A critical vulnerability (CVE-2024-9164) was discovered in GitLab Enterprise Edition (EE) affecting all versions from 12.5 prior to 17.2.9, 17.3 prior to 17.3.5, and 17.4 prior to 17.4.2. The vulnerability allows attackers to run pipelines on arbitrary branches within a repository, which could potentially lead to code execution. This critical severity issue has been assigned a CVSS score of 9.6 (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N) (GitLab Release, Arctic Wolf).

The vulnerability is characterized as a low-complexity exploit that affects GitLab's pipeline functionality. A GitLab pipeline consists of a series of automated processes that execute in stages to build, test, and deploy code. The vulnerability specifically impacts projects with pull mirroring configured, making them susceptible to unauthorized pipeline execution, even without authentication, as the user who configured mirroring. Pipeline configuration for pull mirroring does not need to be enabled for the vulnerability to be exploited (Arctic Wolf).

The exploitation of this vulnerability could allow attackers to execute unauthorized code through pipeline manipulation. If an attacker has developer-level access or above, they can potentially steal the mirror user's CIJOBTOKEN. This could lead to unauthorized access to sensitive data and systems, potentially compromising the integrity of the GitLab instance (SecurityOnline).

GitLab has released patches to address this vulnerability in versions 17.4.2, 17.3.5, and 17.2.9 for both Community Edition (CE) and Enterprise Edition (EE). Organizations are strongly recommended to upgrade to these patched versions immediately. GitLab.com is already running the patched version, and GitLab Dedicated customers do not need to take any action (GitLab Release).