Cyber Resilience

CVE-2025-68944

Gitea ≤ 1.22.2

Published
26 December 2025
Modified
31 December 2025
CVSS Score v3.1 5.0
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:L/A:N
EPSS Score 0.0026 17th percentile
Risk Priority 35 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2025-68944 is a medium-severity Confused Deputy (CWE-441) vulnerability in Gitea Gitea. Its CVSS base score is 5.0 (Medium).

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-16 (Security and Privacy Attributes) — 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

Gitea before 1.22.2 sometimes mishandles the propagation of token scope for access control within one of its own package registries.

CWE(s)
CWE-441

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?

Token scope mishandling in public Gitea package registry directly enables exploitation of the web application for unauthorized access.

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

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2025-68940Same product: Gitea Gitea
CVE-2026-20897Same product: Gitea Gitea
CVE-2026-20912Same product: Gitea Gitea
CVE-2025-68939Same product: Gitea Gitea
CVE-2025-68941Same product: Gitea Gitea
CVE-2026-20750Same product: Gitea Gitea
CVE-2025-68945Same product: Gitea Gitea
CVE-2025-68942Same product: Gitea Gitea
CVE-2026-20800Same product: Gitea Gitea
CVE-2019-11229Same product: Gitea Gitea

Affected Assets

gitea
gitea
≤ 1.22.2

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)
  • AC-3 Access Enforcement
  • AC-6 Least Privilege
  • AC-16 Security and Privacy Attributes
Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

—

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

—

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V3.2.1
  • V3.5.1
  • V3.5.3
  • V3.5.8

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

AC-3 Access Enforcement good match
prevent

Directly enforces token-scope-based access decisions for the package registry, preventing unauthorized propagation that the CVE exploits.

AC-6 Least Privilege partial match
prevent

Limits granted privileges to the minimal token scopes required, reducing impact when scope propagation is mishandled.

AC-16 Security and Privacy Attributes partial match
prevent

Ensures security attributes such as token scopes are correctly bound and propagated to authorization decisions within the registry.

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-04 mostly match
prevents

Proper conveyance and verification of original identity assertions directly prevents loss of request source when forwarding.

PR.AA-05 partial match
prevents

Enforcing least-privilege authorizations on forwarded requests reduces confused-deputy abuse even if source identity is lost.

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

Access-control rules can limit which upstream identities may cause the product to act on their behalf, reducing confused-deputy risk.

A.5.16 Identity management partial match
prevents

Proper identity management ensures the original requester identity is preserved and validated before the product forwards requests.

A.5.18 Access rights partial match
degrades

Explicit access-rights assignment can restrict the product’s ability to act as an unintended proxy for external actors.

A.8.2 Privileged access rights partial match
degrades

Privileged-access controls limit the rights the product may exercise on behalf of upstream callers, mitigating confused-deputy abuse.

A.8.20 Networks security partial match
degrades

Network-security controls can enforce source validation and prevent the product from blindly proxying traffic to external actors.

A.8.25 Secure development life cycle partial match
prevents

Secure-SDLC practices include design reviews that detect and eliminate confused-deputy proxy patterns before deployment.

References