Cyber Resilience

CVE-2023-0523

Medium

Published: 05 April 2023

Published
05 April 2023
Modified
10 February 2025
KEV Added
Patch
CVSS Score v3.1 5.4 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
EPSS Score 0.2135 95.8th percentile
Risk Priority 24 60% EPSS · 20% KEV · 20% CVSS

Summary

CVE-2023-0523 is a medium-severity Cross-site Scripting (CWE-79) vulnerability in Gitlab Gitlab. Its CVSS base score is 5.4 (Medium).

Operationally, ranked in the top 4.2% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

Deeper analysis

An XSS vulnerability has been identified in GitLab, affecting all versions from 15.6 before 15.8.5, from 15.9 before 15.9.4, and from 15.10 before 15.10.1. The flaw, tracked as CWE-79, allows a malicious email address to trigger cross-site scripting in certain instances, carrying a CVSS 3.1 score of 5.4.

An authenticated attacker with low privileges can supply a crafted email address that executes arbitrary script in a victim's browser when the address is rendered. Successful exploitation yields limited confidentiality and integrity impact with changed scope, though user interaction is required and availability is unaffected.

GitLab advisories direct users to apply the listed patches, upgrading to 15.8.5, 15.9.4, or 15.10.1 depending on the release line in use. The associated EPSS score has remained in the 0.21 range with only a minor peak, indicating no pronounced post-disclosure exploitation surge.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability details

An issue has been discovered in GitLab affecting all versions starting from 15.6 before 15.8.5, 15.9 before 15.9.4, and 15.10 before 15.10.1. An XSS was possible via a malicious email address for certain instances.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

No named actor attribution yet. ATT&CK technique mapping in progress for this CVE.

Affected Assets

gitlab
gitlab
15.10.0 · 15.6.0 — 15.8.5 · 15.6.0 — 15.8.5 · 15.9.0 — 15.9.4

Mitigating Controls

Likely Mitigating Controls AI

Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.

addresses: CWE-79

Penetration testing submits XSS payloads to web applications, detecting cross-site scripting flaws for subsequent remediation.

addresses: CWE-79

Validates web inputs to reject script-related content that could produce XSS.

addresses: CWE-79

Output validation against expected content can reject or sanitize script content in generated web pages, reducing XSS exploitability.

References