GitLabApplication
CVE-2018-14601
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedAn issue was discovered in GitLab Community and Enterprise Edition 11.1.x before 11.1.2. A Denial of Service can occur because Markdown rendering times are slow.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · moderate confidenceGitLab Community and Enterprise Edition versions 11.1.x before 11.1.2 contains a Denial of Service vulnerability in the Markdown rendering component. Attackers can trigger slow/unresponsive Markdown processing, likely through specially crafted Markdown input that causes excessive computational resource consumption during parsing.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data
GitLabApplication
>= 11.1.0, < 11.1.2CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Check if GitLab is installedRun `gitlab-ctl version` or check for the presence of /opt/gitlab directoryAffected if GitLab is not installed or the command fails, this CVE does not apply
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Determine installed GitLab versionRun `gitlab-rake gitlab:version` or `gitlab-ctl tail --version`Affected if Unable to retrieve version number - proceed to compare manually using package manager if available
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Compare version against affected rangeCheck if the installed version is 11.1.0 or 11.1.1 (the versions >= 11.1.0 and < 11.1.2 are vulnerable)Affected if Version is exactly 11.1.0 or 11.1.1 - environment is affected by this CVE
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Confirm Markdown rendering is in useGitLab enables Markdown rendering by default for issues, merge requests, comments, and README files - no configuration check needed if users create these content typesAffected if Markdown rendering is enabled by default; if disabled in settings, the attack surface is reduced but version still vulnerable
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Monitor for Markdown processing issuesCheck for slow response times when rendering Markdown in issues/MRs/comments, review logs for unusual processing delays in gitlab-rails production.logAffected if Unexpected slowness in Markdown rendering may indicate attempted exploitation
Environment is affected if GitLab version is 11.1.0 or 11.1.1 and Markdown rendering feature is in use.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor data11.1.2
Upgrade GitLab to version 11.1.2 or later. If immediate upgrade is not feasible, implement rate limiting on Markdown rendering endpoints and consider adding parsing timeouts.
Fix this in GitLab
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA3.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $5,888.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-14601 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2018-14601 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.
- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data