CVE-2024-9631
DoS in Gitlab 13.6.0 – 17.2.9
Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:HSummary
CVE-2024-9631 is a high-severity Inefficient Algorithmic Complexity (CWE-407) vulnerability in Gitlab Gitlab. Its CVSS base score is 7.5 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Network Denial of Service (T1498); ranked in the top 50% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to AC-10 (Concurrent Session Control) and SC-6 (Resource Availability) — see the control section below for these in your framework.
Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary
Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.
CVE-2024-9631 is a denial-of-service vulnerability in GitLab Community Edition (CE) and Enterprise Edition (EE), affecting all versions starting from 13.6 prior to 17.2.9, starting from 17.3 prior to 17.3.5, and starting from 17.4 prior to 17.4.2. The issue arises when viewing diffs of merge requests (MRs) with conflicts, which can cause significant performance degradation due to inefficient resource handling. It is rated with a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.5 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H) and is associated with CWE-407 (Algorithmic Complexity) and CWE-770 (Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling).
An unauthenticated attacker with network access can exploit this vulnerability by accessing or inducing the viewing of diffs for merge requests containing conflicts. This triggers excessive resource consumption on the GitLab server, potentially leading to high availability impact such as slowdowns or service unavailability. No privileges, user interaction, or scope changes are required, making it accessible to remote attackers targeting publicly exposed GitLab instances.
GitLab advisories, detailed in issue tracker entry https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/480867 and HackerOne report https://hackerone.com/reports/2650086, recommend upgrading to patched versions: 17.2.9 or later for the 17.2 branch, 17.3.5 or later for the 17.3 branch, and 17.4.2 or later for the 17.4 branch. No additional workarounds are specified in the provided references.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2024-50440
Vulnerability Data
An issue was discovered in GitLab CE/EE affecting all versions starting from 13.6 prior to 17.2.9, starting from 17.3 prior to 17.3.5, and starting from 17.4 prior to 17.4.2, where viewing diffs of MR with conflicts can be slow.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
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- 5 hardening rules · 3 OS baselines
V1.2.9V15.4.4
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Directly enforces a hard limit on concurrent sessions, structurally preventing unbounded resource allocation.
Requires explicit allocation of resources by priority or quota, directly stopping unlimited allocation.
Imposes a limit on consecutive invalid attempts, preventing one specific class of unbounded resource consumption.
Denial-of-service protection directly reduces the impact of resource exhaustion triggered by worst-case algorithmic inputs.
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.
Monitoring capacity and taking action to maintain availability directly reduces unchecked resource allocation.
Secure SDLC practices (code review, complexity analysis, safe algorithm selection) prevent introduction of exploitable worst-case behavior.
Runtime monitoring of software and resources can detect the performance impact of triggered worst-case complexity.
Identifying and recording algorithmic-complexity vulnerabilities directly addresses the root cause before exploitation.
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.
Baseline comparison of CPU, memory and bandwidth usage helps surface uncontrolled resource allocations before they cause service degradation.
Security testing can uncover performance issues stemming from algorithmic complexity.
Capacity projections and elasticity measures ensure that allocation requests are bounded and can be throttled, reducing the window in which an attacker can force unbounded resource reservations.
Defining retention periods and deletion schedules for backup copies prevents indefinite accumulation of data on storage media without corresponding resource-management controls.
Redundancy of processing facilities can absorb resource exhaustion from inefficient algorithms.
Secure development life cycle includes design reviews that can catch inefficient algorithms before deployment.
Hardening callouts derived
Configuration rules from DISA STIG baselines that bear on weaknesses of the type cited by this CVE. Each rule is shown with the relationship its mapping actually records, against the CWE it was authored against. Derived via CVE→CWE over `controls_xwalks` (authoritative rows only; rows rated `none` are excluded).
Oracle Linux 8 (2 rules)
- V-248552 OL 8 must be configured so that all network connections associated with SSH traffic terminate after becoming unresponsive. prevents CWE-770
- V-248553 OL 8 must be configured so that all network connections associated with SSH traffic are terminated after 10 minutes of becoming unresponsive. prevents CWE-770
Oracle Linux 9 (2 rules)
- V-271710 OL 9 must be configured so that all network connections associated with SSH traffic are terminated after 10 minutes of becoming unresponsive. prevents CWE-770
- V-271709 OL 9 must be configured so that all network connections associated with SSH traffic terminate after becoming unresponsive. prevents CWE-770
RHEL 8 (1 rule)
- V-230244 RHEL 8 must be configured so that all network connections associated with SSH traffic terminate after becoming unresponsive. prevents CWE-770