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CVE Record

CVE-2021-22217: 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 specially crafted issue or merge request

MediumCVSS 6.5Not KEV-listedUpdated
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Glexia's TakeAutomated analysismoderate

Security readout for executives and security teams

Plain-English summary

CVE-2021-22217 is a GitLab availability issue. An authenticated attacker could submit a specially crafted issue or merge request that consumes excessive resources, potentially disrupting GitLab service for users. It does not indicate data theft or code modification, but downtime can affect development, incident response, and release workflows.

Executive priority

Treat as a moderate availability risk. Patch during the next urgent maintenance window, sooner for internet-facing or high-dependency GitLab systems.

Technical view

GitLab CE/EE before 13.10.5, 13.11.5, and 13.12.2 is affected by uncontrolled resource consumption triggered through crafted issue or merge request content. CVSS 3.1 is 6.5: network reachable, low complexity, low privileges required, no user interaction, availability impact high.

Likely exposure

Self-managed GitLab CE/EE instances are exposed if they run versions below 13.10.5, 13.11.5, or 13.12.2 and allow authenticated users to create issues or merge requests.

Exploitation context

The source bundle does not show CISA KEV listing or active exploitation evidence. Exploitation requires low privileges and targets availability, so risk is higher on public or broadly accessible GitLab instances.

Researcher notes

Public metadata identifies the impact and affected ranges, but the provided sources do not include detailed root cause or safe detection indicators. Avoid reproducing crafted content in production; validate through version and configuration review.

Mitigation direction

  • Upgrade GitLab CE/EE to 13.10.5, 13.11.5, 13.12.2, or later.
  • Prioritize internet-facing and widely accessible GitLab instances.
  • Review GitLab vendor advisories for any newer maintenance guidance.
  • Restrict issue and merge request creation to trusted users where feasible.

Validation and detection

  • Inventory all self-managed GitLab CE/EE versions.
  • Confirm each instance is at or above a fixed version.
  • Review user permissions for issue and merge request creation.
  • Check monitoring for unexplained GitLab resource spikes or service instability.
Prepared
Confidence
medium
Sources
5

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-2021-22217 mapping review

Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.

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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
4Source 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-2021-22217Attack 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.