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CVE Record

CVE-2021-22221: An issue has been discovered in GitLab affecting all versions starting from 12.9.0 before 13.10.5, all vers...

An issue has been discovered in GitLab affecting all versions starting from 12.9.0 before 13.10.5, all versions starting from 13.11.0 before 13.11.5, all versions starting from 13.12.0 before 13.12.2. Insufficient expired password validation in various operations allow user to maintain limited access after their password expired

MediumCVSS 6.5Not KEV-listedUpdated
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Glexia's TakeAutomated analysismoderate

Security readout for executives and security teams

Plain-English summary

CVE-2021-22221 is a GitLab access-control flaw where some operations did not properly enforce expired-password status. A user whose password had expired could retain limited access. The known impact is confidentiality and integrity exposure, not service outage.

Executive priority

Prioritize remediation during the next security maintenance window. Escalate if GitLab hosts sensitive source code, deployment secrets, or regulated workflows, because retained access can undermine offboarding and password-expiration controls.

Technical view

Affected GitLab versions are 12.9.0 through before 13.10.5, 13.11.0 through before 13.11.5, and 13.12.0 through before 13.12.2. The issue is insufficient expired-password validation across various operations. CVSS 3.1 score is 6.5, network exploitable, low complexity, with low confidentiality and integrity impact.

Likely exposure

Organizations running self-managed GitLab in the affected version ranges have plausible exposure, especially where password-expiration policy is used as an access-control boundary. Hosted or fully upgraded instances are not shown as affected by the provided sources.

Exploitation context

The provided sources do not report active exploitation, and the CVE is not listed as KEV. The issue requires attention because it weakens account lifecycle controls, but the sources only describe limited retained access after password expiry.

Researcher notes

Evidence is limited on which operations allowed retained access and how much access remained. Treat this as an authorization lifecycle flaw, not confirmed remote code execution. No CWE is supplied in the bundle, and no exploit status is cited.

Mitigation direction

  • Upgrade GitLab to 13.10.5, 13.11.5, 13.12.2, or later supported releases.
  • Review GitLab vendor guidance for any branch-specific upgrade recommendations.
  • Reassess accounts with expired passwords and remove access where no longer appropriate.
  • Confirm password-expiration policy is still enforced after upgrade.

Validation and detection

  • Inventory all self-managed GitLab versions against the affected version ranges.
  • Check whether password-expiration policies are enabled and relied upon for access control.
  • Review recent activity from accounts with expired passwords during the exposure window.
  • Verify upgraded instances report fixed or later GitLab versions.
Prepared
Confidence
medium
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

Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.

description · low confidence lookup

Credential and access behavior lookup

The CVE wording references authentication or credential exposure, so valid-account and credential-access review may help. This is a Glexia inferred lookup path, not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, or CVE Program mapping.

Open ATT&CK lookup
cve · low confidence lookup

CVE-2021-22221 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:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N

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:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N3.92.5Primary CVE score

Vulnerability scoring details

Base CVSS 3.1 score

6.5Medium
CVSS 3.1 vector shape for CVE-2021-22221Attack VectorAttack ComplexityPrivileges RequiredUser InteractionScopeConfidentiality ImpactIntegrity ImpactAvailability Impact

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

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>=13.12.0, <13.12.2, >=13.11.0, <13.11.5, >=12.9.0, <13.10.5Listed
Weakness

CWE details

No CWE listed

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