Cyber Resilience

CVE-2025-68940

Access Control in Gitea ≤ 1.22.5

Access Control
Published
26 December 2025
Modified
02 January 2026
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 3.1
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N
EPSS Score 0.0026 17th percentile
Risk Priority 15 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2025-68940 is a low-severity Incorrect Authorization (CWE-863) vulnerability in Gitea Gitea. Its CVSS base score is 3.1 (Low).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked at the 17th 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-6 (Least Privilege) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

A01:2025 Broken Access Control

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

In Gitea before 1.22.5, branch deletion permissions are not adequately enforced after merging a pull request.

CWE(s)
CWE-863

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI

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.
attack.mitre.org →
Why these techniques?

Authorization bypass in public-facing Gitea enables exploitation of the application to perform unauthorized branch deletions.

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

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2025-68941Same product: Gitea Gitea
CVE-2025-68944Same product: Gitea Gitea
CVE-2025-68939Same product: Gitea Gitea
CVE-2025-68938Same product: Gitea Gitea
CVE-2026-20897Same product: Gitea Gitea
CVE-2026-20912Same product: Gitea Gitea
CVE-2026-20750Same product: Gitea Gitea
CVE-2025-69413Same product: Gitea Gitea
CVE-2026-20888Same product: Gitea Gitea
CVE-2026-20736Same product: Gitea Gitea

Affected Assets

gitea
gitea
≤ 1.22.5

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)
  • AC-3 Access Enforcement
  • AC-6 Least Privilege
  • AC-25 Reference Monitor
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 Access Enforcement good match
prevent

Directly enforces authorization decisions on branch deletion operations, which the CVE shows are not being applied after PR merge.

AC-6 Least Privilege partial match
prevent

Requires that branch deletion rights be assigned only to the minimum set of users/roles and revoked when no longer needed, limiting the impact of the enforcement gap.

AC-25 Reference Monitor minimal match
prevent

Provides a tamper-proof reference monitor that mediates all access requests, including post-merge branch operations in Gitea.

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 mostly match
prevents

Defining, enforcing, and reviewing access authorizations and least privilege directly prevents incorrect 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.

A.5.15 Access control partial match
prevents

Requiring consistency between access rights and classification plus formal approval steps ensures that the authorization logic correctly distinguishes between entities that should and should not be granted access.

A.5.18 Access rights partial match
prevents

Enforcing policy-driven approval and role-change reviews stops incorrect or stale authorization decisions from remaining in effect after job changes or terminations.

A.8.3 Information access restriction partial match
prevents

By tying access rights to identity, device, location and classification, the control reduces the likelihood that an authorization decision will be based on an incorrect or bypassed policy.

References