Security Resilience

CVE-2023-3920

Access Control in Gitlab 11.2 – 16.2.8

Published
29 September 2023
Modified
05 May 2025
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 4.3
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N
EPSS Score 0.0045 38th percentile
Risk Priority 37 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-2023-3920 is a medium-severity Incorrect Authorization (CWE-863) vulnerability in Gitlab Gitlab. Its CVSS base score is 4.3 (Medium).

Operationally, ranked at the 38th 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

An issue has been discovered in GitLab affecting all versions starting from 11.2 before 16.2.8, all versions starting from 16.3 before 16.3.5, all versions starting from 16.4 before 16.4.1. It was possible that a maintainer to create a fork relationship…

more

between existing projects contrary to the documentation.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-15423Same product: Gitlab Gitlab
CVE-2025-12555Same product: Gitlab Gitlab
CVE-2023-5198Same product: Gitlab Gitlab
CVE-2024-10043Same product: Gitlab Gitlab
CVE-2024-4011Same product: Gitlab Gitlab
CVE-2024-10219Same product: Gitlab Gitlab
CVE-2025-3396Same product: Gitlab Gitlab
CVE-2023-4812Same product: Gitlab Gitlab
CVE-2023-4658Same product: Gitlab Gitlab
CVE-2025-4972Same product: Gitlab Gitlab

Affected Assets

gitlab
gitlab
16.4.0 · 11.2 — 16.2.8 · 11.2 — 16.2.8 · 16.3.0 — 16.3.5

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-863

Periodic review and update of procedures reduces incorrect authorization implementations over time.

addresses: CWE-863

Supervision identifies cases where authorization logic incorrectly permits unauthorized actions.

addresses: CWE-863

Defining permitted attribute values and auditing modifications reduces the chance of incorrect authorization outcomes due to tampered or missing labels.

addresses: CWE-863

The authorization process and usage restrictions help prevent incorrect authorization for remote access types.

addresses: CWE-863

Establishing configuration and connection requirements helps ensure correct rather than incorrect authorization for wireless access.

addresses: CWE-863

Establishing connection authorization processes for mobile devices helps ensure authorization decisions are correctly implemented rather than incorrect.

addresses: CWE-863

Monitoring account use, notifying on changes, and reviewing accounts for compliance corrects incorrect authorization assignments.

addresses: CWE-863

Ensures authorization decisions for external system use are correctly implemented and enforced.

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

Requiring consistency between access rights and classification plus formal approval steps ensures that the authorization logic correctly distinguishes between entities that should and should not be granted access.

blocks

A.5.18's provisioning, revocation, review and adjustment of access rights (incl. before role changes/termination, with segregation and owner approval) directly stops incorrect authorization decisions from being exploitable in the vast majority of cases; the bounded remainder is incorrectness inside the authorization logic itself (e.g. flawed conditional or missing check) rather than rights that were wrongly granted.

blocks

A.8.3 directly mandates restricting access to information per policies via configuration, identity/group controls, isolation, and dynamic techniques that enforce correct authorization decisions, addressing most but not all slices of CWE-863 (e.g., remainder in non-access-decision authorization errors like timing or environmental factors).

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-863, a class-level weakness, and none of its children carries one either.

References