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CVE Record

CVE-2021-22216: A denial of service vulnerability in all versions of GitLab CE/EE before 13.12.2, 13.11.5 or 13.10.5 allows...

A denial of service vulnerability in all versions of GitLab CE/EE before 13.12.2, 13.11.5 or 13.10.5 allows an attacker to cause uncontrolled resource consumption with a very long issue or merge request description

MediumCVSS 6.5Not KEV-listedUpdated
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Glexia's TakeAutomated analysismoderate

Security readout for executives and security teams

Plain-English summary

CVE-2021-22216 is a GitLab availability issue. A logged-in attacker can submit an unusually long issue or merge request description that consumes excessive server resources. The business impact is disruption of GitLab service for teams that rely on affected self-managed versions, not data theft or privilege escalation based on the provided sources.

Executive priority

Prioritize remediation in normal vulnerability cycles, faster for internet-facing or broadly user-accessible GitLab instances. The issue can disrupt engineering operations, but the provided sources indicate availability impact only and do not support claims of data compromise or active exploitation.

Technical view

Affected GitLab CE/EE versions before 13.10.5, 13.11.5, and 13.12.2 allow uncontrolled resource consumption through very long issue or merge request descriptions. CVSS 3.1 is 6.5: network reachable, low complexity, low privileges required, no user interaction, and high availability impact.

Likely exposure

Exposure is most likely for self-managed GitLab CE/EE instances in the affected version ranges where authenticated users can create issues or merge requests. Public or broadly accessible registration increases practical risk because exploitation requires only low privileges, not administrator access.

Exploitation context

The provided sources and KEV status do not show active exploitation. The vulnerability is plausible to abuse by any account with issue or merge request description-writing permissions, but the bundle does not provide exploit prevalence, proof-of-concept status, or observed attack details.

Researcher notes

The source data is specific on affected version ranges and fixed releases, but sparse on root cause, exploit artifacts, and operational indicators. Treat validation as version and permission review plus monitoring correlation, without assuming compromise from this CVE alone.

Mitigation direction

  • Upgrade GitLab CE/EE to 13.10.5, 13.11.5, 13.12.2, or a later supported release.
  • If immediate upgrade is delayed, review GitLab vendor guidance for supported temporary controls.
  • Restrict issue and merge request creation to trusted users where business requirements allow.
  • Monitor GitLab resource consumption for abnormal spikes tied to issue or merge request activity.

Validation and detection

  • Inventory all GitLab CE/EE instances and record exact deployed versions.
  • Confirm no instance remains below 13.10.5, 13.11.5, or 13.12.2 in its release branch.
  • Review access policies for who can create issues and merge requests.
  • Check GitLab logs and monitoring for unusually large descriptions and resource exhaustion events.
Prepared
Confidence
high
Sources
4

Public sources used

Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.

Potential ATT&CK relevance

Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context

These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.

ATT&CK lookup starting points

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CVE-2021-22216 mapping review

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Vulnerability profileCVE Program record
Severity
Medium
CVSS
6.5 (3.1)
Known Exploited
No
Published

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

Official CVE source material

CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5

These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.

1CVSS vectors
0Timeline events
0ADP providers
3Source links

CVSS vector scores

1 official score

We collect every scored CVSS vector available in the official CNA and ADP containers. When more than one version is present, the table keeps the source vectors side by side instead of collapsing them into the highest score.

ScoreVersionSeverityVectorExploitImpactSource
6.5CVSS 3.1MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H2.83.6Primary CVE score

Vulnerability scoring details

Base CVSS 3.1 score

6.5Medium
CVSS 3.1 vector shape for CVE-2021-22216Attack VectorAttack ComplexityPrivileges RequiredUser InteractionScopeConfidentiality ImpactIntegrity ImpactAvailability Impact

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

Attack Vector
NetworkAdjacentLocalPhysical
Attack Complexity
LowHigh
Privileges Required
NoneLowHigh
User Interaction
NoneRequired
Scope
ChangedUnchanged
Confidentiality Impact
HighLowNone
Integrity Impact
HighLowNone
Availability Impact
HighLowNone

Source materials

Affected products

Products and packages named in the record

VendorProductVersion / packageStatus
GitLabGitLab<13.10.5, >=13.11, <13.11.5, >=13.12, <13.12.2Listed
Weakness

CWE details

No CWE listed

CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.