Security Resilience

CVE-2023-1167

Access Control in Gitlab 12.3.0 – 15.8.5

Published
05 April 2023
Modified
10 February 2025
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 5.3
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N
EPSS Score 0.0056 45th percentile
Risk Priority 45 floored blend · peak EPSS

CVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.

Summary

CVE-2023-1167 is a medium-severity Missing Authorization (CWE-862) vulnerability in Gitlab Gitlab. Its CVSS base score is 5.3 (Medium).

Operationally, ranked at the 45th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

Improper authorization in Gitlab EE affecting all versions from 12.3.0 before 15.8.5, all versions starting from 15.9 before 15.9.4, all versions starting from 15.10 before 15.10.1 allows an unauthorized access to security reports in MR.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2023-6840Same product: Gitlab Gitlab
CVE-2023-4630Same product: Gitlab Gitlab
CVE-2023-2233Same product: Gitlab Gitlab
CVE-2024-4660Same product: Gitlab Gitlab
CVE-2023-5061Same product: Gitlab Gitlab
CVE-2023-0805Same product: Gitlab Gitlab
CVE-2024-3115Same product: Gitlab Gitlab
CVE-2023-4700Same product: Gitlab Gitlab
CVE-2024-12431Same product: Gitlab Gitlab
CVE-2024-3959Same product: Gitlab Gitlab

Affected Assets

gitlab
gitlab
15.10.0 · 12.3.0 — 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-285 CWE-862

Documented procedures facilitate correct implementation and ongoing management of authorization decisions.

addresses: CWE-285 CWE-862

Periodic reviews identify and correct flaws in authorization decisions or enforcement.

addresses: CWE-862 CWE-285

Documenting permitted unauthenticated actions prevents missing authorization by making all exceptions explicit and subject to organizational review.

addresses: CWE-285 CWE-862

Establishing permitted attributes and values, plus auditing changes, ensures authorization decisions are based on correctly managed policy data.

addresses: CWE-285 CWE-862

Explicitly mandates authorizing remote access types before permitting connections, directly mitigating improper authorization.

addresses: CWE-285 CWE-862

The control explicitly requires authorization of each wireless access type prior to permitting connections.

addresses: CWE-285 CWE-862

Mandating explicit authorization of mobile device connections reduces the risk of improper authorization decisions for system access.

addresses: CWE-285 CWE-862

Specifying access authorizations for each account and requiring approvals for account requests enforces proper authorization decisions.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

blocks

A.5.1 only requires the existence of an overarching policy and topic-specific policies (including on access control); it does not itself perform or enforce any authorization check, so the CWE-285 weakness can still be exploited.

blocks

Requiring formal authorization of every access request before rights are granted ensures that checks for required permissions are performed, preventing missing authorization checks from being introduced.

blocks

A.5.18's provisioning, review, revocation and activation steps (incl. owner approval, SoD, timely removal on role/termination change) directly stop exploitation of missing authorization checks by ensuring no actor receives or retains rights to resources they should not access; the bounded remainder is that it cannot stop missing-authorization defects inside the enforcement mechanism itself once rights have been granted (e.g. flawed code that ignores the rights table).

finds

By requiring competent outsiders to verify that every function enforces the need-to-know principle, the control lowers the likelihood that missing authorization checks persist undetected.

finds

By requiring managers to verify that authorization decisions match policy and to remediate deviations, the control limits the persistence of incorrect or missing authorization checks.

blocks

A.5.8 integrates risk assessment, requirements elicitation and governance into the project lifecycle so that authorization needs can be identified and specified; it does not itself perform or enforce authorization checks, so the missing-authorization weakness can still be present and exploitable.

Hardening callouts derived

DISA STIG baselines are authored against specific weaknesses. Where this CVE cites a broad weakness class, the mapping is not asserted at that abstraction (owner ruling, 2026-09-25: grade only at Base and below), so no rule is shown here rather than a rule shown against the wrong grain.

  • No fine-grained STIG row for CWE-862, a class-level weakness, and none of its children carries one either.
  • No fine-grained STIG row for CWE-285, a class-level weakness. Rules are authored against its narrower children: CWE-552.

References