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CVE Record

CVE-2021-22246: A vulnerability was discovered in GitLab versions before 14.0.2, 13.12.6, 13.11.6.

A vulnerability was discovered in GitLab versions before 14.0.2, 13.12.6, 13.11.6. GitLab Webhook feature could be abused to perform denial of service attacks.

HighCVSS 7.7Not KEV-listedUpdated
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Glexia's TakeAutomated analysishigh

Security readout for executives and security teams

Plain-English summary

CVE-2021-22246 is a GitLab denial-of-service vulnerability in the Webhook feature. An authenticated low-privilege user could abuse webhooks to harm availability. It does not indicate data theft or data modification, but outages in GitLab can disrupt development, CI/CD, and operational workflows.

Executive priority

Treat this as a high-priority availability risk for GitLab environments, especially where GitLab supports CI/CD or release operations. Patch promptly, but do not classify it as confirmed active exploitation based on the provided sources.

Technical view

GitLab versions before 13.11.6, 13.12.6, and 14.0.2 are affected. The CVSS 3.1 vector is AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H, meaning network-reachable, low-complexity abuse requiring low privileges, with high availability impact only.

Likely exposure

Exposure is most likely where self-managed GitLab instances run affected versions and allow users with low privileges to configure or trigger webhooks. Internet exposure increases operational risk, but the issue still requires privileges according to the CVSS vector.

Exploitation context

The provided sources do not show CISA KEV listing or cited active exploitation. The public bundle says GitLab Webhooks could be abused for denial of service, but it does not provide detailed root cause or attack telemetry.

Researcher notes

The bundle provides affected ranges, fixed version thresholds, and CVSS details, but no CWE or detailed root cause. Scope analysis should focus on GitLab version exposure, webhook capability access, and availability impact. Avoid assuming confidentiality or integrity compromise.

Mitigation direction

  • Upgrade GitLab to 13.11.6, 13.12.6, 14.0.2, or later.
  • Prioritize exposed or business-critical self-managed GitLab instances.
  • Review GitLab vendor guidance for any version-specific operational recommendations.
  • Restrict webhook administration to trusted users where operationally feasible.
  • Monitor GitLab availability and webhook-related activity during remediation.

Validation and detection

  • Inventory all GitLab instances and record exact versions.
  • Compare versions against the affected ranges in the CVE record.
  • Confirm upgraded systems report a fixed or later GitLab version.
  • Review projects and groups for unnecessary webhook configurations.
  • Check availability metrics for webhook-correlated resource exhaustion.
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-2021-22246 mapping review

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Vulnerability profileCVE Program record
Severity
High
CVSS
7.7 (3.1)
Known Exploited
No
Published

Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/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
7.7CVSS 3.1HighCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H3.14Primary CVE score

Vulnerability scoring details

Base CVSS 3.1 score

7.7High
CVSS 3.1 vector shape for CVE-2021-22246Attack VectorAttack ComplexityPrivileges RequiredUser InteractionScopeConfidentiality ImpactIntegrity ImpactAvailability Impact

Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/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>=2.0, <13.11.6, >=13.12, <13.12.6, >=14.0, <14.0.2Listed
Weakness

CWE details

No CWE listed

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