CVE-2024-2878
📋 TL;DR
This vulnerability in GitLab CE/EE allows attackers to cause denial of service by crafting malicious search terms for branch names. The attack exploits inefficient search processing to consume excessive server resources. All GitLab instances running affected versions are vulnerable.
💻 Affected Systems
- GitLab Community Edition
- GitLab Enterprise Edition
📦 What is this software?
Gitlab by Gitlab
GitLab is a complete DevOps platform providing source code management, CI/CD pipelines, security scanning, container registry, and collaboration tools used by millions of developers and thousands of enterprises worldwide. As both a cloud-hosted SaaS offering (GitLab.com) and self-managed software, G...
Learn more about Gitlab →Gitlab by Gitlab
GitLab is a complete DevOps platform providing source code management, CI/CD pipelines, security scanning, container registry, and collaboration tools used by millions of developers and thousands of enterprises worldwide. As both a cloud-hosted SaaS offering (GitLab.com) and self-managed software, G...
Learn more about Gitlab →Gitlab by Gitlab
GitLab is a complete DevOps platform providing source code management, CI/CD pipelines, security scanning, container registry, and collaboration tools used by millions of developers and thousands of enterprises worldwide. As both a cloud-hosted SaaS offering (GitLab.com) and self-managed software, G...
Learn more about Gitlab →Gitlab by Gitlab
GitLab is a complete DevOps platform providing source code management, CI/CD pipelines, security scanning, container registry, and collaboration tools used by millions of developers and thousands of enterprises worldwide. As both a cloud-hosted SaaS offering (GitLab.com) and self-managed software, G...
Learn more about Gitlab →Gitlab by Gitlab
GitLab is a complete DevOps platform providing source code management, CI/CD pipelines, security scanning, container registry, and collaboration tools used by millions of developers and thousands of enterprises worldwide. As both a cloud-hosted SaaS offering (GitLab.com) and self-managed software, G...
Learn more about Gitlab →Gitlab by Gitlab
GitLab is a complete DevOps platform providing source code management, CI/CD pipelines, security scanning, container registry, and collaboration tools used by millions of developers and thousands of enterprises worldwide. As both a cloud-hosted SaaS offering (GitLab.com) and self-managed software, G...
Learn more about Gitlab →⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Complete service unavailability for all GitLab users due to resource exhaustion, potentially requiring manual intervention to restore service.
Likely Case
Temporary service degradation or partial unavailability affecting user productivity and CI/CD pipelines.
If Mitigated
Minimal impact with proper rate limiting, monitoring, and quick detection of anomalous search patterns.
🎯 Exploit Status
Requires attacker to understand GitLab's search implementation and craft specific branch name patterns. Authentication may be required depending on project visibility settings.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: 16.9.7, 16.10.5, or 16.11.2
Vendor Advisory: https://about.gitlab.com/releases/2024/05/08/patch-release-gitlab-16-11-2-released/
Restart Required: No
Instructions:
1. Backup your GitLab instance. 2. Update to patched version using your deployment method (Omnibus, Helm, source). 3. Verify upgrade completed successfully. 4. Monitor for any issues post-upgrade.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Rate Limit Branch Searches
allImplement rate limiting on search endpoints to prevent resource exhaustion attacks
# Configure in GitLab application settings or via reverse proxy
# Example nginx rate limiting: limit_req_zone $binary_remote_addr zone=search:10m rate=10r/s;
Disable Branch Search
allTemporarily disable branch search functionality if not critical
# Modify GitLab configuration to disable search features
# This is application-specific and may require code changes
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement strict rate limiting on all search endpoints
- Monitor for unusual search patterns and block offending IPs
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check GitLab version via admin panel or run: sudo gitlab-rake gitlab:env:info | grep 'GitLab version'Check Version:
sudo gitlab-rake gitlab:env:info | grep 'GitLab version'Verify Fix Applied:
Confirm version is 16.9.7, 16.10.5, 16.11.2 or higher. Test branch search functionality works normally.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unusually high CPU/memory usage during search operations
- Multiple failed or slow search requests from single IP
- Patterns of branch searches with special characters
Network Indicators:
- Spike in HTTP requests to /api/v4/projects/*/repository/branches endpoint
- Abnormal request patterns to search endpoints
SIEM Query:
source="gitlab.log" AND ("branch search" OR "/branches") AND (duration>5s OR status=500)