Cyber Resilience

CVE-2025-6171

Access Control in Gitlab 13.2.0 – 18.3.6

Published
15 November 2025
Modified
20 November 2025
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 5.3
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N
EPSS Score 0.0026 18th percentile
Risk Priority 35 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2025-6171 is a medium-severity Missing Authorization (CWE-862) vulnerability in Gitlab Gitlab. Its CVSS base score is 5.3 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Code Repositories (T1213.003); ranked at the 18th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to AC-3 (Access Enforcement) and AC-4 (Information Flow Enforcement) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

GitLab has remediated an issue in GitLab CE/EE affecting all versions from 13.2 before 18.3.6, 18.4 before 18.4.4, and 18.5 before 18.5.2 that could have allowed an authenticated attacker with reporter access to view branch names and pipeline details by…

more

accessing the packages API endpoint even when repository access was disabled.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI

T1213.003 Code Repositories Collection
Adversaries may leverage code repositories to collect valuable information.
Why these techniques?

The vulnerability allows an authenticated attacker with reporter access to access the packages API endpoint and retrieve branch names and pipeline details even when repository access is disabled. This directly maps to T1213.003 (Data from Information Repositories: Code Repositories), as the flaw bypasses access controls to expose sensitive repository metadata.

Confidence: HIGH · MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise v19.0

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2025-11989Same product: Gitlab Gitlab
CVE-2025-5846Same product: Gitlab Gitlab
CVE-2024-8114Same product: Gitlab Gitlab
CVE-2025-2246Same product: Gitlab Gitlab
CVE-2025-5315Same product: Gitlab Gitlab
CVE-2024-12431Same product: Gitlab Gitlab
CVE-2024-1539Same product: Gitlab Gitlab
CVE-2023-4630Same product: Gitlab Gitlab
CVE-2023-0805Same product: Gitlab Gitlab
CVE-2025-1299Same product: Gitlab Gitlab

Affected Assets

gitlab
gitlab
13.2.0 — 18.3.6 · 13.2.0 — 18.3.6 · 18.4.0 — 18.4.4

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)
  • AC-3 Access Enforcement
  • AC-6 Least Privilege
  • AC-4 Information Flow Enforcement
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

prevent

Directly enforces authorization checks on all API endpoints so that reporter-level users cannot retrieve branch or pipeline data when repository access is disabled.

prevent

Ensures the reporter role is granted only the minimum privileges required, preventing implicit exposure of repository metadata through the packages API.

prevent

Enforces information-flow rules between the packages API and repository data stores, blocking unauthorized disclosure of branch and pipeline details.

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.

detects

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.

References