5379 GitLab servers vulnerable to zero-click account takeover attacks

Thousands of GitLab servers are vulnerable to zero-click account takeover attacks exploiting the flaw CVE-2023-7028.

GitLab has recently released security updates to address two critical vulnerabilities impacting both the Community and Enterprise Edition.

The most critical vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2023-7028 (CVSS score 10), is an account takeover via Password Reset. The flaw can be exploited to hijack an account without any interaction.

“An issue has been discovered in GitLab CE/EE affecting all versions from 16.1 prior to 16.1.6, 16.2 prior to 16.2.9, 16.3 prior to 16.3.7, 16.4 prior to 16.4.5, 16.5 prior to 16.5.6, 16.6 prior to 16.6.4, and 16.7 prior to 16.7.2 in which user account password reset emails could be delivered to an unverified email address.” reads the advisory published by GitLab.

The flaws impact the following versions:

• 16.1 prior to 16.1.5
• 16.2 prior to 16.2.8
• 16.3 prior to 16.3.6
• 16.4 prior to 16.4.4
• 16.5 prior to 16.5.6
• 16.6 prior to 16.6.4
• 16.7 prior to 16.7.2

GitLab addressed the flaw with the releases 16.7.2, 16.5.6, and 16.6.4. The company backported security patches to 16.1.6, 16.2.9, and 16.3.7.

The company is not aware of attacks in the wild exploiting the vulnerability CVE-2023-7028. Self-managed customers are recommended to review their logs to check for possible attempts to exploit this vulnerability:

• Check gitlab-rails/production_json.log for HTTP requests to the /users/password path with params.value.email consisting of a JSON array with multiple email addresses.
• Check gitlab-rails/audit_json.log for entries with meta.caller.id of PasswordsController#create and target_details consisting of a JSON array with multiple email addresses.

Over 5,300 internet-exposed GitLab instances are vulnerable to CVE-2023-7028, a zero-click account takeover flaw GitLab warned about earlier this month.

Researchers from ShadowServer reported that 5,379 instances exposed online are vulnerable to this flaw.

Most of the vulnerable servers are in the United States (964), Germany (730), and Russia (721).

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, CVE-2023-7028)