Vulnerability DatabaseCVE-2025-2938

CVE-2025-2938:
GitLab vulnerability analysis and mitigation

Overview

An issue has been discovered in GitLab CE/EE affecting all versions from 17.3 before 17.11.5, 18.0 before 18.0.3, and 18.1 before 18.1.1 that could have allowed authenticated users to gain elevated project privileges by requesting access to projects where role modifications during the approval process resulted in unintended permission grants. The vulnerability was discovered and reported through GitLab's HackerOne bug bounty program by security researcher mateuszek (GitLab Patch, NVD).

Technical details

The vulnerability is classified as an Elevation of Privilege issue with a CVSS v3.1 base score of 3.1 (Low), with the vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N. The issue is categorized under CWE-840 (Business Logic Errors) and involves unintended permission grants during the project access approval process (GitLab Patch, Wiz).

Impact

The vulnerability could allow authenticated users to gain elevated project privileges by exploiting the role modification process during project access requests. The impact is limited to privilege escalation within project contexts, with no confidentiality breach or system availability impact reported (GitLab Patch).

Mitigation and workarounds

GitLab has released patches in versions 17.11.5, 18.0.3, and 18.1.1 to address this vulnerability. Users 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 Patch).