# CVE-2018-15472: Denial of service in n/a

> Attackers can cause GitLab Sidekiq jobs to hang indefinitely via malicious diffs, leading to service disruption.

- **Severity:** High 7.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 15 Apr 2023
- **Updated:** 10 Feb 2025
- **Also known as:** GHSA-wm64-hhrx-w2h7, MINI-23p3-8vp5-5w2h, MINI-4xj4-cxx8-chc4, UBUNTU-CVE-2018-15472

## What is CVE-2018-15472?

CVE-2018-15472 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Gitlab Gitlab, published on 15 Apr 2023. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

An issue was discovered in GitLab Community and Enterprise Edition before 11.1.7, 11.2.x before 11.2.4, and 11.3.x before 11.3.1. The diff formatter using rouge can block for a long time in Sidekiq jobs without any timeout.

Weakness: CWE-770 (Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2018-15472?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Gitlab Gitlab.

## How do I fix CVE-2018-15472?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2018-15472 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-15472 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Gitlab Gitlab

- [CVE-2026-97229](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-97229/): GitLab Community Edition and Enterprise Edition Integer Overflow or Wraparound (critical 10.0, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-85706](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-85706/): GitLab Community Edition and Enterprise Edition Path Traversal (critical 10.0, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2023-7028](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-7028/): GitLab Community and Enterprise Editions Improper Access Control (critical 10.0, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2021-22205](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-22205/): GitLab Community and Enterprise Editions Remote Code Execution (critical 10.0, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2021-39935](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-39935/): GitLab Community and Enterprise Editions Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) (medium 6.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2018-15472 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2018-15472 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Gitlab Gitlab, published on 15 Apr 2023. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-15472 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Gitlab Gitlab. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-15472/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-15472/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2018-15472
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-15472
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2018-15472

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-15472/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.