CVE-2023-5831

An issue has been discovered in GitLab CE/EE affecting all versions starting from 16.0 before 16.3.6, all versions starting from 16.4 before 16.4.2, and all versions starting from 16.5.0 before 16.5.1 which have the super_sidebar_logged_out feature flag enabled. Affected versions with this default-disabled feature flag enabled may unintentionally disclose GitLab version metadata to unauthorized actors.

Weakness

The code transmits data to another actor, but a portion of the data includes sensitive information that should not be accessible to that actor.

Affected Software

Potential Mitigations

• Compartmentalize the system to have “safe” areas where trust boundaries can be unambiguously drawn. Do not allow sensitive data to go outside of the trust boundary and always be careful when interfacing with a compartment outside of the safe area.
• Ensure that appropriate compartmentalization is built into the system design, and the compartmentalization allows for and reinforces privilege separation functionality. Architects and designers should rely on the principle of least privilege to decide the appropriate time to use privileges and the time to drop privileges.

Related Attack Patterns

• https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/12.html
• https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/217.html
• https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/612.html
• https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/613.html
• https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/618.html
• https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/619.html
• https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/621.html
• https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/622.html
• https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/623.html

References

• https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/428919
• https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/428919