Security Resilience

CVE-2023-5825

DoS in Gitlab 16.2.0 – 16.3.6

DoS
Published
06 November 2023
Modified
05 May 2025
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 6.5
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:N/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0064 49th percentile
Risk Priority 51 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-2023-5825 is a medium-severity Infinite Loop (CWE-835) vulnerability in Gitlab Gitlab. Its CVSS base score is 6.5 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Data Obfuscation (T1001); ranked at the 49th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

An issue has been discovered in GitLab CE/EE affecting all versions starting from 16.2 before 16.3.6, all versions starting from 16.4 before 16.4.2, all versions starting from 16.5 before 16.5.1. A low-privileged attacker can point a CI/CD Component to an…

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incorrect path and cause the server to exhaust all available memory through an infinite loop and cause Denial of Service.

CWE(s)
CWE-835

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1001 Data Obfuscation Command And Control
Adversaries may obfuscate command and control traffic to make it more difficult to detect.
attack.mitre.org →
T1003.003 NTDS Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to access or create a copy of the Active Directory domain database in order to steal credential information, as well as obtain other information about domain members such as devices, users, and access rights.
attack.mitre.org →
T1003.005 Cached Domain Credentials Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to access cached domain credentials used to allow authentication to occur in the event a domain controller is unavailable.
attack.mitre.org →
T1003.008 /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to dump the contents of <code>/etc/passwd</code> and <code>/etc/shadow</code> to enable offline password cracking.
attack.mitre.org →
T1007 System Service Discovery Discovery
Adversaries may try to gather information about registered local system services.
attack.mitre.org →
T1011.001 Exfiltration Over Bluetooth Exfiltration
Adversaries may attempt to exfiltrate data over Bluetooth rather than the command and control channel.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2025-13335Same product: Gitlab Gitlab
CVE-2025-0290Same product: Gitlab Gitlab
CVE-2025-0673Same product: Gitlab Gitlab
CVE-2026-2995Same product: Gitlab Gitlab
CVE-2023-5933Same product: Gitlab Gitlab
CVE-2025-11990Same product: Gitlab Gitlab
CVE-2026-1458Same product: Gitlab Gitlab
CVE-2026-93577Same product: Gitlab Gitlab
CVE-2026-97229Same product: Gitlab Gitlab
CVE-2026-0723Same product: Gitlab Gitlab

Affected Assets

gitlab
gitlab
16.5.0 · 16.2.0 — 16.3.6 · 16.2.0 — 16.3.6 · 16.4.0 — 16.4.2

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.

CP-7 Alternate Processing Site
addresses: CWE-835

Enables transfer to alternate site if an infinite loop at the primary renders processing unavailable.

SC-5 Denial-of-service Protection
addresses: CWE-835

Detects and mitigates infinite loops that produce sustained resource consumption.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

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

ID.RA-01 partial match
blocks

Static analysis and vuln scanning during asset assessment can detect unreachable loop exits.

PR.PS-06 partial match
blocks

Secure SDLC practices (reviews, testing, static analysis) directly prevent introduction of infinite-loop defects.

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.

A.5.14 Information transfer partial match
removes
A.5.15 Access control partial match
removes
A.5.16 Identity management partial match
removes
A.5.17 Authentication information partial match
removes
A.5.18 Access rights partial match
removes
A.8.10 Information deletion partial match
removes

References