An issue has been discovered in GitLab CE/EE affecting all versions from 17.9 before 17.9.6, and 17.10 before 17.10.4. The runtime profiling data of a specific service was accessible to unauthenticated users.
The product fails to adequately prevent the revealing of unnecessary and potentially sensitive system information within debugging messages.
Debug messages are messages that help troubleshoot an issue by revealing the internal state of the system. For example, debug data in design can be exposed through internal memory array dumps or boot logs through interfaces like UART via TAP commands, scan chain, etc. Thus, the more information contained in a debug message, the easier it is to debug. However, there is also the risk of revealing information that could help an attacker either decipher a vulnerability, and/or gain a better understanding of the system. Thus, this extra information could lower the “security by obscurity” factor. While “security by obscurity” alone is insufficient, it can help as a part of “Defense-in-depth”.