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GitLabApplication

CVE-2019-12433

MEDIUM · 5.3 CVSS v3.1 Published 2020-03-10
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 11.11.0 or later.
See remediation →
62/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

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 · unedited
An issue was discovered in GitLab Community and Enterprise Edition 11.7 through 11.11. It has Improper Input Validation. Restricted visibility settings allow creating internal projects in private groups, leading to multiple permission issues.

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 · high confidence

GitLab fails to properly validate visibility settings when creating projects in private groups. The input validation flaw allows users to create internal projects within private groups despite restricted visibility settings being enabled, leading to unintended permission exposures where project access may be granted to unauthorized users.

MitigationUpgrade GitLab to a version beyond 11.11 that contains the patch for this improper input validation issue in visibility settings.

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
Affected:>= 11.7.0, <= 11.11.0

CVSS 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
Low
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N

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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Check your GitLab version
    Run `sudo gitlab-rake gitlab:env:info` or check the GitLab admin area under /admin/application_settings to find the installed version number
    Affected if The version is between 11.7.0 and 11.11.0 inclusive
  2. Identify private groups in your instance
    Use the GitLab API or web interface to list all groups with private visibility setting enabled
    Affected if Private groups exist in the instance
  3. Inspect projects within private groups
    For each private group, review all projects and check their visibility level (internal vs private)
    Affected if Any project within a private group is set to internal visibility
  4. Check for unauthorized access exposure
    Verify which users outside the private group can access internal projects hosted within those groups
    Affected if Users not member of the private group can access internal projects in that group

You are affected if your GitLab version is between 11.7.0 and 11.11.0 AND you have internal visibility projects created within private groups that are accessible to users outside those groups.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 11.11.0
Interim mitigation

Upgrade GitLab to a version beyond 11.11 that contains the patch for this improper input validation issue in visibility settings.

Fix this in GitLab Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation8.0 h
  • Implementation12.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
30.0 hours of engineering $5,380
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $8,608.

Scan for this in your stack

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2019-12433 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

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.

What belongs here
  • 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