CVE-2025-13927
Published: 22 January 2026
Summary
CVE-2025-13927 is a high-severity Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling (CWE-770) vulnerability in Gitlab Gitlab. Its CVSS base score is 7.5 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked at the 10.8th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
Threat & Defense at a Glance
Threat & Defense Details
Likely Mitigating ControlsAI
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.
This control implements explicit throttling on session allocation, addressing the weakness of allocating resources without limits.
Plan testing exercises resource allocation limits and throttling during simulated failures, directly addressing weaknesses that allow unbounded resource use.
Contingency plan updates ensure recovery strategies address unbounded resource allocation, making it harder for attackers to exploit lack of throttling to cause prolonged outages.
Provides continuity when unbounded resource allocation at the primary site leads to exhaustion and downtime.
Alternate services allow operations to continue when primary allocation of resources lacks limits or throttling.
Explicit planning of security-related actions requires defining limits, windows, and resource allocations, making allocation without throttling far less likely.
Measures of performance include tracking allocation behavior and throttling effectiveness, reducing the window for resource exhaustion attacks.
Imposes an inactivity-based limit on network resource allocation, throttling the number of concurrently held connections.
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Unauthenticated remote exploitation of a public-facing web application (GitLab) to trigger resource exhaustion DoS via malformed input.
NVD Description
GitLab has remediated an issue in GitLab CE/EE affecting all versions from 11.9 before 18.6.4, 18.7 before 18.7.2, and 18.8 before 18.8.2 that could have allowed an unauthenticated user to create a denial of service condition by sending crafted requests…
more
with malformed authentication data.
Deeper analysisAI
CVE-2025-13927 is a denial-of-service vulnerability in GitLab Community Edition (CE) and Enterprise Edition (EE), affecting all versions from 11.9 prior to 18.6.4, 18.7 prior to 18.7.2, and 18.8 prior to 18.8.2. The flaw, tracked under CWE-770 (Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling), allows an unauthenticated attacker to trigger resource exhaustion by sending crafted requests containing malformed authentication data. It has 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), indicating high severity due to its network accessibility and lack of prerequisites.
An unauthenticated attacker can exploit this vulnerability remotely over the network with low complexity, requiring no privileges or user interaction. By submitting specially crafted requests with malformed authentication data, the attacker can cause excessive resource consumption on the GitLab server, leading to a denial-of-service condition that disrupts service availability for legitimate users.
GitLab has remediated the issue through patch releases, including GitLab 18.8.2, as detailed in their release notes. Security practitioners should upgrade affected instances to GitLab 18.6.4, 18.7.2, 18.8.2, or later versions. Additional details are available in the GitLab issue tracker (gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/582737) and the originating HackerOne report (hackerone.com/reports/3439683).
Details
- CWE(s)