CVE-2025-14513
Published: 11 March 2026
Summary
CVE-2025-14513 is a high-severity Improper Validation of Specified Quantity in Input (CWE-1284) 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 11.3th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 SC-5 (Denial-of-service Protection) and SI-10 (Information Input Validation).
Deeper analysis
CVE-2025-14513 is a vulnerability in GitLab Community Edition (CE) and Enterprise Edition (EE) that enables an unauthenticated user to trigger a denial of service (DoS) condition. The flaw arises from improper input validation when processing specially crafted JSON payloads submitted to the protected branches API. It impacts all versions from 16.11 prior to 18.7.6, 18.8 prior to 18.8.6, and 18.9 prior to 18.9.2, 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-1284 (Improper Validation of Specified Quantity in Input).
An unauthenticated attacker can exploit this remotely over the network with low attack complexity and no user interaction or privileges needed. By sending a malicious JSON payload to the protected branches API endpoint, the attacker causes a DoS, rendering the service unavailable, while confidentiality and integrity remain unaffected.
GitLab has remediated the issue through patches, including GitLab 18.9.2 as outlined in the patch release notes at https://about.gitlab.com/releases/2026/03/11/patch-release-gitlab-18-9-2-released/. Further technical details are documented in GitLab's internal work item at https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/work_items/583718 and the originating HackerOne disclosure report at https://hackerone.com/reports/3452477. Security teams should prioritize upgrading affected instances to patched versions for mitigation.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2025-208576
Vulnerability details
GitLab has remediated an issue in GitLab CE/EE affecting all versions from 16.11 before 18.7.6, 18.8 before 18.8.6, and 18.9 before 18.9.2 that could have allowed an unauthenticated user to cause a denial of service condition due to improper input…
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validation when processing specially crafted JSON payloads in the protected branches API.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Unauthenticated remote exploitation of public-facing GitLab API via crafted JSON input directly enables application-layer DoS through software vulnerability abuse.
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Directly enforces validation of JSON payloads at API input points to prevent DoS from specially crafted inputs lacking proper quantity validation.
Protects against and detects DoS events specifically targeting the protected branches API with malicious JSON payloads.
Ensures timely remediation of input validation flaws through patching to versions like 18.9.2, preventing exploitation of this CVE.