CVE-2023-7028Weak Password Recovery Mechanism for Forgotten Password in GitLab
- 10.0CriticalCVSS base score
- 94.5%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 0.1% of all CVEs
- YesKnown exploitedin CISA's KEV since 1 May 2024
- 3Public exploitsMetasploit, Nuclei and Exploit-DB
Description
An issue has been discovered in GitLab CE/EE affecting all versions from 16.1 prior to 16.1.6, 16.2 prior to 16.2.9, 16.3 prior to 16.3.7, 16.4 prior to 16.4.5, 16.5 prior to 16.5.6, 16.6 prior to 16.6.4, and 16.7 prior to 16.7.2 in which user account password reset emails could be delivered to an unverified email address.
Exploited in the wild
CISA lists this vulnerability in its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog as GitLab Community and Enterprise Editions Improper Access Control Vulnerability.
- Added
- 1 May 2024
- Fix due (US federal)
- 22 May 2024
- Used by ransomware
- Not known
Apply mitigations per vendor instructions or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.
ENISA's EU Vulnerability Database lists it as exploited, from CISA's KEV, since 1 May 2024.
Public exploit
An exploit or proof of concept is public: anyone can try it against an unpatched system. The public collections list a Metasploit module, a Nuclei template and an Exploit-DB entry for it. A reference of the record is tagged as an exploit. CISA's SSVC rates its exploitation: it is being exploited.
Show the exploits4
Metasploit modules1 module
- GitLab Password Reset Account Takeover (Metasploit module) (opens in a new tab)
auxiliary/admin/http/gitlab_password_reset_account_takeoverRank normaldisclosed 11 Jan 2024
Nuclei templates1 template
- GitLab - Account Takeover via Password Reset (Nuclei template) (opens in a new tab)
http/cves/2023/CVE-2023-7028.yamlSeverity high
Exploit-DB1 entry
- GitLab CE/EE < 16.7.2 - Password Reset (Exploit-DB entry) (opens in a new tab)
EDB-ID 51889remote, javapublished 14 Mar 2024Not verified
References tagged exploit1 reference
- HackerOne Bug Bounty Report #2293343 (opens in a new tab)technical-descriptionexploitx_transferred
Modules, templates and exploits as listed by the Metasploit Framework (BSD-3-Clause), ProjectDiscovery's Nuclei templates (MIT) and the Exploit Database (GPLv2), read once a day. Where the data comes from
Timeline
ID reserved
By GitLab
- 23 days later
· 23 days later
Published
- 4 months later
· 4 months later
Added to CISA KEV
Known exploited in the wild
- 2 years later
· 2 years later
Record updated
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| GitLabCNA (assigner) | 3.1 | Critical10.0 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N |
| NVDNVD · Analyzed | 3.1 | Critical9.8 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 94.5% · top 0.1% of all CVEs (14 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: active · Automatable: yes · Technical impact: total
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Critical 10.0.
Affected products
What to do
Solution: Upgrade to versions 16.7.2, 16.6.4, 16.5.6, 16.4.5, 16.3.7, 16.2.9, 16.1.6 or above.
References
References4
- GitLab Issue #436084 (opens in a new tab)issue-trackingx_transferred
- HackerOne Bug Bounty Report #2293343 (opens in a new tab)technical-descriptionexploitx_transferred
- https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2023-7028 (opens in a new tab)government-resource
- https://www.vicarius.io/vsociety/posts/critical-gitlab-account-takeover-vulnerability-cve-2023-7028 (opens in a new tab)
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- CISA KEV catalog (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2023-59219 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2023-7028)Record last updated .