CVE-2026-1102
Published: 22 January 2026
Summary
CVE-2026-1102 is a medium-severity Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling (CWE-770) vulnerability in Gitlab Gitlab. Its CVSS base score is 5.3 (Medium).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked at the 9.2th 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?
Vulnerability in public-facing GitLab enables unauthenticated exploitation via malformed SSH requests to trigger resource exhaustion DoS (CWE-770).
NVD Description
GitLab has remediated an issue in GitLab CE/EE affecting all versions from 12.3 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 repeated malformed…
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SSH authentication requests.
Deeper analysisAI
CVE-2026-1102 is a vulnerability in GitLab Community Edition (CE) and Enterprise Edition (EE) that enables an unauthenticated user to trigger a denial of service condition through repeated malformed SSH authentication requests. The issue affects all versions from 12.3 prior to 18.6.4, 18.7 prior to 18.7.2, and 18.8 prior to 18.8.2. It carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 5.3 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L) and maps to CWE-770 (Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling).
Any unauthenticated attacker with network access can exploit this vulnerability by sending repeated malformed SSH authentication requests to the GitLab instance. Successful exploitation results in a denial of service, reducing the availability of the affected system, while confidentiality and integrity remain unaffected.
GitLab has remediated the vulnerability through patch releases, including GitLab 18.8.2, as documented in their release notes at https://about.gitlab.com/releases/2026/01/21/patch-release-gitlab-18-8-2-released/. Further technical details and discussion are available in the associated GitLab issue tracker at https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/579746. Security practitioners should prioritize upgrading to the patched versions to mitigate the risk.
Details
- CWE(s)