Executive brief
A vulnerability in GitLab's impersonation feature allows any registered user to log in as any other user, including administrators. GitLab is a platform used by organizations to manage software development and source code. An attacker could use this flaw to gain full control over the platform, access sensitive proprietary code, or disrupt business operations.
Technical details
A privilege escalation vulnerability exists in the GitLab 'impersonate' feature due to improper access controls. An authenticated attacker can exploit this by sending a crafted POST request to the '/admin/users/stop_impersonation' endpoint, specifying a target username (such as 'root') and providing a valid authenticity token from their own session. This allows the attacker to bypass intended restrictions and assume the identity of the target user. The vulnerability affects GitLab versions 8.2.x through 8.7.0 and has been addressed in official security patches released by the vendor.
Affected products
- GitLab GitLab 8.2.0 through 8.2.4, 8.3.0 through 8.3.8, 8.4.0 through 8.4.9, 8.5.0 through 8.5.11, 8.6.0 through 8.6.7, 8.7.0
Timeline
- 2016-05-02: advisory: GitLab released security patches and an advisory for this vulnerability.
- 2016-08-15: other: Public exploit published on Exploit-DB.
- 2017-01-23: disclosed: NVD published the CVE record.