Cyber Resilience

CVE-2025-13772

Access Control in Gitlab 18.4.0 – 18.5.5

Published
09 January 2026
Modified
15 July 2026
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 7.1
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:N
EPSS Score 0.0039 32th percentile
Risk Priority 54 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2025-13772 is a high-severity Missing Authorization (CWE-862) vulnerability in Gitlab Gitlab. Its CVSS base score is 7.1 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked at the 32th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

This vulnerability is AI-related — categorised as Enterprise AI Assistants; in the Privacy and Disclosure risk domain.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to AC-24 (Access Control Decisions) and AC-25 (Reference Monitor) — 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-2025-13772 is a missing authorization vulnerability (CWE-862) in GitLab Enterprise Edition (EE), affecting all versions from 18.4 prior to 18.5.5, 18.6 prior to 18.6.3, and 18.7 prior to 18.7.1. The flaw allows an authenticated user to access and utilize AI model settings from unauthorized namespaces by manipulating namespace identifiers in API requests. It has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.1 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:N), indicating high confidentiality impact with low integrity impact and no availability impact.

An authenticated attacker with low privileges (PR:L) can exploit this vulnerability over the network (AV:N) with low complexity and no user interaction required. By crafting API requests with manipulated namespace identifiers, the attacker gains unauthorized read access to sensitive AI model settings in other namespaces (C:H) and limited ability to influence them (I:L), potentially exposing or tampering with AI configurations belonging to other projects or organizations.

GitLab has remediated the issue in patch releases including 18.5.5, 18.6.3, and 18.7.1, as detailed in the release notes at https://about.gitlab.com/releases/2026/01/07/patch-release-gitlab-18-7-1-released/ and the issue tracker at https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/581268. Security practitioners should upgrade to these patched versions immediately to mitigate the risk.

The vulnerability's relevance to AI/ML stems from its impact on AI model settings, which could expose proprietary configurations in multi-tenant GitLab environments. No public information indicates real-world exploitation as of the CVE publication on 2026-01-09.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

GitLab has remediated an issue in GitLab EE affecting all versions from 18.4 before 18.5.5, 18.6 before 18.6.3, and 18.7 before 18.7.1 that could have allowed an authenticated user to access and utilize AI model settings from unauthorized namespaces by…

more

manipulating namespace identifiers in API requests.

CWE(s)

AI Security AnalysisAI

AI Category
Enterprise AI Assistants
Risk Domain
Privacy and Disclosure
OWASP Top 10 for LLMs 2025
None mapped
Classification Reason
Matched keywords: ai

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to elevate privileges.
T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access
Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.
T1210 Exploitation of Remote Services Lateral Movement
Adversaries may exploit remote services to gain unauthorized access to internal systems once inside of a network.
T1548 Abuse Elevation Control Mechanism Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may circumvent mechanisms designed to control privilege elevation to gain higher-level permissions.
T1556 Modify Authentication Process Defense Impairment
Adversaries may modify authentication mechanisms and processes to access user credentials or enable otherwise unwarranted access to accounts.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2023-0805Same product: Gitlab Gitlab
CVE-2023-5600Same product: Gitlab Gitlab
CVE-2024-5318Same product: Gitlab Gitlab
CVE-2025-5315Same product: Gitlab Gitlab
CVE-2024-8114Same product: Gitlab Gitlab
CVE-2025-2246Same product: Gitlab Gitlab
CVE-2025-5846Same product: Gitlab Gitlab
CVE-2023-6955Same product: Gitlab Gitlab
CVE-2025-11702Same product: Gitlab Gitlab
CVE-2024-4660Same product: Gitlab Gitlab

Affected Assets

gitlab
gitlab
18.7.0 · 18.4.0 — 18.5.5 · 18.6.0 — 18.6.3

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)
  • 5 hardening rules · 3 OS baselines
Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

AC-3 directly requires enforcement of authorization decisions on every access request, structurally eliminating missing authorization checks.

AC-24 mandates that access control decisions are applied to each request, preventing bypass of authorization logic.

AC-25 requires a tamperproof, always-invoked reference monitor that ensures authorization checks cannot be omitted.

AC-6 reduces the set of actions reachable without proper authorization, limiting blast radius of missing checks.

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.

PR.AA-05 full match
prevents

Explicitly requires defining, enforcing, and reviewing authorizations and least privilege, directly preventing missing authorization checks.

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.

prevents

Requiring authentication and credentials before any access occurs eliminates the absence of authorization checks that would otherwise allow an unauthenticated actor to reach protected resources.

prevents

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.

prevents

Mandatory authorization checks and central records of granted rights ensure that every access attempt is preceded by an explicit decision rather than relying on missing checks.

mitigates

Segregating the approval of access rights from their implementation provides an independent check that reduces the impact of missing authorization checks in the resulting system configuration.

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.

prevents

Defining authorization responsibilities and reviewing risk-treatment progress throughout the project lifecycle catches missing authorization checks before the system is deployed.

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-248581 OL 8 must require users to provide a password for privilege escalation. prevents CWE-862
  • V-252656 The OL 8 operating system must not be configured to bypass password requirements for privilege escalation. prevents CWE-862
RHEL 7 (2 rules)
  • V-251704 The Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system must not be configured to bypass password requirements for privilege escalation. prevents CWE-862
  • V-204429 The Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system must be configured so that users must provide a password for privilege escalation. prevents CWE-862

References