CVE-2023-5226 Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection') in GitLab

What is CVE-2023-5226?

CVE-2023-5226 is a medium-severity code injection vulnerability in Gitlab Gitlab, published on 1 Dec 2023. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

Official description

An issue has been discovered in GitLab affecting all versions before 16.4.3, all versions starting from 16.5 before 16.5.3, all versions starting from 16.6 before 16.6.1. Under certain circumstances, a malicious actor bypass prohibited branch checks using a specially crafted branch name to manipulate repository content in the UI.

Weakness: CWE-94

Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-5226?

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

Products include Gitlab Gitlab.

How do I fix CVE-2023-5226?

Upgrade gitlab to a fixed version for your release line: 16.4.3, 16.5.3 or 16.6.1.

Upgrade, and never evaluate templates, expressions or code built from user input. More about Code injection.

Is CVE-2023-5226 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-5226 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Gitlab Gitlab

• CVE-2026-97229 GitLab Community Edition and Enterprise Edition Integer Overflow or Wraparound Exploited Critical 10.0
• CVE-2026-85706 GitLab Community Edition and Enterprise Edition Path Traversal Exploited Critical 10.0
• CVE-2023-7028 GitLab Community and Enterprise Editions Improper Access Control Exploited Critical 10.0
• CVE-2021-22205 GitLab Community and Enterprise Editions Remote Code Execution Exploited Critical 10.0
• CVE-2021-39935 GitLab Community and Enterprise Editions Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) Exploited Medium 6.8

All Gitlab Gitlab vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as BIT-gitlab-2023-5226, GHSA-6wgj-fxqf-wxj2, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-5226.