CVE-2021-39899 Security feature bypass in GitLab

Low 2.9 Published 4 Oct 2021 Updated 4 Aug 2024

An attacker with physical access can bypass password change rate limits by stealing session IDs to brute force user passwords.

Exploited in the wild: Not known
Login needed: Not needed
Attackable: Local or same network only
Victim action needed: A user has to click or open something
Fix: Available

What is CVE-2021-39899?

CVE-2021-39899 is a low-severity vulnerability in Gitlab Gitlab, published on 4 Oct 2021. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

Official description

In all versions of GitLab CE/EE, an attacker with physical access to a user’s machine may brute force the user’s password via the change password function. There is a rate limit in place, but the attack may still be conducted by stealing the session id from the physical compromise of the account and splitting the attack over several IP addresses and passing in the compromised session value from these various locations.

Weakness: CWE-640

Which versions are affected by CVE-2021-39899?

1 open source package ship an affected version, including gitlab. It affects 1 product.

Package	Affected	Fixed in
`gitlab` Bitnami	From `1.0.0`	`14.1.7, 14.2.5, 14.3.1`

Products include Gitlab Gitlab.

How do I fix CVE-2021-39899?

Upgrade gitlab to a fixed version for your release line: 14.1.7, 14.2.5 or 14.3.1.

Is CVE-2021-39899 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-39899 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Gitlab Gitlab vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as BIT-gitlab-2021-39899, GHSA-f3cp-f6ph-xxhj, UBUNTU-CVE-2021-39899.