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GitLab EE CVE-2026-92528

| EUVDEUVD-2026-98216 MEDIUM
Incorrect Authorization (CWE-863)
2026-10-13 GitLab GHSA-3wqg-xrf4-q3m8
4.2
CVSS 3.1 · Vendor: GitLab
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Attack ChainAIDerived

Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain

  1. Access
    Authenticate as contributing user
  2. Exploit
    Exploit improper identity resolution
  3. Impact
    Self-approve own contributed merge request

Vulnerability Assessment

Weakness
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A01:2025 - Broken Access Control
ASVS 5.0
V8 - Authorization Authorization logic validation
MITRE ATT&CK

1 technique across 1 tactic: Privilege Escalation

The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up.

Exploitation Conditions

Requires an authenticated GitLab EE account (PR:L) that has itself contributed commits to the target merge request, plus the specific 'certain conditions' under which improper identity resolution occurs - implying the environment must rely on merge-request approval rules that forbid contributors from approving their own changes (the four-eyes/separation-of-duties control being bypassed). Limiting factors: only GitLab Enterprise Edition is affected (not pure CE deployments), valid authenticated access is needed, high attack complexity (AC:H) indicates the identity-resolution edge case is not trivially triggerable, and the impact is confined to the review-governance process rather than direct data or system compromise.

Impact

This is a low-severity authorization flaw (vendor CVSS 3.1 base 4.2, CWE-863 Incorrect Authorization) and the combined signals point to a genuinely low real-world priority rather than an urgent one. The CVSS vector (AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N) shows network reach but requires an already-authenticated user (PR:L) and high attack complexity (AC:H), consistent with the description's qualifier that the bypass only occurs 'under certain conditions' via improper identity resolution. There is no CISA KEV listing, no public exploit code identified, and no EPSS score supplied in the input, so there is no evidence of active or probable exploitation. The primary impact is to the integrity of merge-request approval controls (separation-of-duties / four-eyes review), not system compromise; note the vendor assigned C:L but the described behavior - self-approving a merge request you contributed to - maps more naturally to an integrity-of-process issue than to confidentiality, a point worth verifying with GitLab. Net assessment: a defense-in-depth governance weakness for organizations that rely on GitLab approval rules for compliance, not a high-urgency remotely-exploitable vulnerability.

Exploit ScenarioDerived

An authenticated GitLab EE user who has pushed commits to a merge request leverages an identity-resolution flaw to satisfy the approval requirement themselves, bypassing the rule that prevents contributors from approving their own changes. This lets a single insider merge code without the intended independent review, undermining separation-of-duties controls. No public proof-of-concept exploit has been identified at time of analysis.

This Month Plan within 30 days. Why: MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9).
Patch available 0.1% exploitation probability (EPSS)

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AnalysisAIv1 – Oct 13, 2026

Authenticated users of GitLab Enterprise Edition can approve a merge request even when they themselves contributed commits to it, defeating the separation-of-duties control that approval rules are meant to enforce. The flaw stems from improper identity resolution and affects all EE versions from 16.11 before 19.2.8, 19.3 before 19.3.5, and 19.4 before 19.4.2, and it requires a valid authenticated account that has already pushed commits to the target merge request, with high attack complexity because the identity-resolution edge case is not trivially triggered. Impact is confined to review governance (integrity of the approval workflow) with no confidentiality or availability impact; this is a low-severity issue (vendor CVSS 3.1 base 4.2, CWE-863), and no public exploit identified at time of analysis.

RemediationAI

Vendor-released patch: upgrade to GitLab EE 19.2.8, 19.3.5, or 19.4.2 depending on your release track, as documented in the patch release advisory at https://docs.gitlab.com/releases/patches/patch-release-gitlab-19-4-2-released/ (upstream work item: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/work_items/606772). If immediate upgrade is not possible, compensating controls should target the approval-rules bypass rather than the feature set as a whole: require approvals from a dedicated reviewer group whose members are restricted from pushing commits to the protected branches in scope (this preserves four-eyes integrity but adds review latency and staffs a separate approval roster); enable protected branch settings and push rules so that only designated maintainers can author changes routed through those approval rules, which narrows the set of accounts that can be both contributor and approver; and monitor GitLab audit events and the merge request approvals API for cases where the approver and an author resolve to the same account, using that as a detection control while unpatched - with the trade-off that this only detects rather than prevents the bypass and generates review overhead. There is no public exploit identified at time of analysis, so patching on a normal maintenance cadence is reasonable.

Affected VersionsENISA

GitLab 19.3 <19.3.5
GitLab 16.11 <19.2.8
GitLab 19.4 <19.4.2

Affected Packages

euvd gitlab fix: 19.2.8, 19.3.5, 19.4.2

Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)

Affects your stack

Affects 1 package in euvd

Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.

Technical ContextAI · show details

The defect is an incorrect authorization (CWE-863) in GitLab Enterprise Edition's merge request approval logic, specifically in the identity resolution used to decide whether a given user counts as a contributor to the merge request and therefore must be blocked from approving it. Merge approval rules implement a four-eyes / separation-of-duties control, so an approver who authored part of the change should be excluded; here the contributor-to-account matching fails under certain conditions, letting the same authenticated principal act as both author and approver. Attack complexity is rated high (AC:H) because the bypass depends on a non-obvious edge case in that matching rather than a simple request, and the vector (AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U) confirms a network-reachable, authenticated-only, low-privilege path with no user interaction. Only the Enterprise Edition is affected, since the merged-result and multiple-approval-rule features involved are EE functionality; public CPE data (cpe:2.3:a:gitlab:gitlab:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*) covers GitLab as a whole rather than separating CE from EE.

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  • Exploit and PoC references, threat intelligence from 22 sources

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Severity by source

Vendor (GitLab) PRIMARY 4.2 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N
vuln.today AI 3.1 LOW

Web-reachable (AV:N) but needs an authenticated contributing user (PR:L) and a non-trivial identity-resolution edge case (AC:H); impact is integrity of approval controls (I:L), no confidentiality or availability effect.

3.1 AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N
4.0 AV:N/AC:H/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

Primary rating from Vendor (GitLab).

CVSS VectorVendor: GitLab

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
High
Privileges Required
Low
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
Low
Availability
None

Lifecycle Timeline

2
Patch available
Oct 13, 2026 - 03:16 EUVD
CVE Published
Oct 13, 2026 - 01:06 cve.org
MEDIUM 4.2

DescriptionCVE.org

GitLab has remediated an issue in GitLab EE affecting all versions from 16.11 before 19.2.8, 19.3 before 19.3.5, and 19.4 before 19.4.2 that, under certain conditions, could have allowed an authenticated user to approve a merge request despite having contributed commits to it, due to improper identity resolution.

Threat Intelligence Overview

EPSS Score
0.1%
Top 98% exploitable
Prevalence
High
GitLab EE is widely deployed enterprise DevOps/source-control platform
Social Media
3
Sightings
Data Quality
4 sources
Confidence: Medium

How this decision was reached

The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.

SignalValue
Severity MEDIUM
CISA KEV No
Public POC No
EPSS 0.1%
Patch available Yes
Active threat No
Deciding rule
MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9)
What every action level means
Emergency Immediate action required. Criteria: CRITICAL + in CISA KEV (actively exploited) without patch, OR CRITICAL + EPSS > 30% without patch, OR CRITICAL + active threat signals without patch.
Act Now Prioritize within 24-48h. Criteria: in KEV with patch available, OR CRITICAL + public POC, OR HIGH + EPSS > 10%, OR CRITICAL + active threat, OR any CRITICAL severity.
This Week Schedule remediation this week. Criteria: HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9). Patch within normal change window.
This Month Plan within 30 days. Criteria: MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9), lower exploitation probability. Include in regular patch cycle.
Monitor Track and reassess. Criteria: LOW severity (CVSS 0.1-3.9), minimal exploitation risk. No immediate action needed.

SSVC AssessmentENISA

SSVC Decision· derived
Scheduled
Exploitation· derived
None
System Exposure· derived
Open
Automatable· derived
No
Human Impact· derived
High

Priority Score

21
Low Medium High Critical
KEV: 0
EPSS: 0
CVSS: +21
PoC: 0
Weaponized: 0
Threat intel: 0
Gov advisory: 0

Attack Technique

Authentication bypass attacks exploit flaws in the verification mechanisms that control access to systems and applications.

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