GitLabApplication
CVE-2019-18460
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 8.15 through 12.4 in the Comments Search feature provided by the Elasticsearch integration. It has Incorrect Access Control.
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 confidenceThe Comments Search feature in GitLab (versions 8.15-12.4) with Elasticsearch integration has an Incorrect Access Control vulnerability. This allows authenticated users to potentially search and view comments they should not have access to, due to improper enforcement of project-level access controls when querying the Elasticsearch index.
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
>= 8.15.0, <= 12.4.0CVSS 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
- High
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Determine installed GitLab versionRun `gitlab-rake gitlab:env:info` or check the GitLab admin panel under /admin/about to see the exact version numberAffected if The version shown is 8.15.0 through 12.4.0 inclusive
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Verify Elasticsearch integration is enabledNavigate to GitLab Admin Area > Settings > Integrations > Elasticsearch, or check via Rails console: `Gitlab::ElasticHelper.enabled?`Affected if Elasticsearch integration is turned on and active
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Confirm Comments Search uses ElasticsearchCheck if the search feature returns results from comments across projects by searching from a low-privilege user account that belongs to only one projectAffected if The search returns comments from projects the user is not a member of or should not have visibility into
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Check project-level access control configurationIn GitLab admin under Elasticsearch settings, verify if the setting for limiting searches to project members is properly enforced, or test by searching from a guest or reporter user accountAffected if Users with limited project access can retrieve comments from projects they do not belong to
You are affected if GitLab version is between 8.15.0 and 12.4.0 AND Elasticsearch integration is enabled, allowing unauthorized comment visibility across projects.
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 dataUpgrade GitLab to version 12.5 or later. After upgrading, verify that the Elasticsearch-powered comments search properly respects project membership and visibility permissions.
Fix this in GitLab
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation6.0 h
- Testing5.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $4,464.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2019-18460 — 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-2019-18460 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
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