Red Hat Developer HubApplication · Redhat
CVE-2023-6944
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 · uneditedA flaw was found in the Red Hat Developer Hub (RHDH). The catalog-import function leaks GitLab access tokens on the frontend when the base64 encoded GitLab token includes a newline at the end of the string. The sanitized error can display on the frontend, including the raw access token. Upon gaining access to this token and depending on permissions, an attacker could push malicious code to repositories, delete resources in Git, revoke or generate new keys, and sign code illegitimately.
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 confidenceA vulnerability in Red Hat Developer Hub's catalog-import function causes GitLab access tokens to be leaked on the frontend. When a base64-encoded GitLab token contains a trailing newline, the error sanitization fails to properly mask the token, exposing the raw credentials in the frontend error message.
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
Red Hat Developer HubApplication
< 1.21.0< 1.21.0CVSS 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
- Low
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/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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Check your Backstage or RHDH versionRun 'rpm -q <package-name>' for RHDH or check package.json/backstage-cli version for Backstage. Compare the version number to 1.21.0.Affected if Installed version is below 1.21.0
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Verify catalog-import with GitLab is configuredInspect your Backstage app-config.yaml or equivalent configuration file for the 'catalog.import' section. Look for a 'gitlab' provider configuration with a 'token' or 'apiToken' field.Affected if Catalog-import is configured to use GitLab with an API token
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Check if token is base64-encoded with trailing newlineBase64-encode your GitLab token locally and inspect whether the resulting string ends with a newline character or '=='. Compare against tokens that when encoded produce a trailing newline in the output.Affected if The GitLab token, when base64-encoded, contains a trailing newline character (0x0A)
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Search for leaked tokens in frontend error logsCheck browser console logs, Backstage frontend logs, or network responses when catalog-import fails. Look for error messages containing the literal base64-encoded token string.Affected if Raw base64-encoded GitLab tokens appear in error messages or logs
You are affected if you run Backstage or RHDH below version 1.21.0, use catalog-import with GitLab, and your token produces a trailing newline when base64-encoded, potentially exposing credentials in error messages.
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.
dbcve · scoped1.21.0
Rotate any GitLab tokens potentially exposed through this vulnerability and audit GitLab audit logs for unauthorized access. Ensure tokens used with RHDH do not contain trailing newlines when base64 encoded.
Red Hat Developer Hub 1.21.0 / Backstage 1.21.0
- Upgrade Red Hat Developer Hub to version 1.21.0 or later
- If using Backstage directly, upgrade to version 1.21.0 or later
- After upgrade, verify the catalog-import function no longer displays tokens in error messages
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
Fix this in Red Hat Developer Hub
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing4.0 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 $5,408.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-6944 — 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-2023-6944 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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- 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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