Skip to content
Fencer Vulns
medium 4.3

CVE-2023-3909 json

Inefficient Regular Expression Complexity in GitLab

published 2023-11-06 3 y ago modified 2026-09-10 1 mo ago also BIT-gitlab-2023-3909 , EUVD-2023-44535

cvss
4.3
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.7%
EPSS 0.7% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 54%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

An issue has been discovered in GitLab CE/EE affecting all versions starting from 12.3 before 16.3.6, all versions starting from 16.4 before 16.4.2, all versions starting from 16.5 before 16.5.1. A Regular Expression Denial of Service was possible by adding a large string in timeout input in gitlab-ci.yml file.

Patch / fix

  • bitnami gitlab 16.3.6, 16.4.2, 16.5.1
  • GitLab GitLab 16.3.6, 16.4.2, 16.5.1

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
2 y ago

Exploit prediction

0.73% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 54% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

  • hackerone.com https://hackerone.com/reports/2050269 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 4.3 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
NVD 3.1 6.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
OSV 3.1 4.3 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
bitnami gitlab
>=12.3.0, <16.3.6
>=16.4.0, <16.4.2
>=16.5.0, <16.5.1
16.3.6
16.4.2
16.5.1

Affected products

  • GitLab GitLab

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-1333 Inefficient Regular Expression Complexity
Technology feeds

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.

CPEs and fixed versions use Anchore's correction of NVD's data: Enhance with deb and rpm package type records.