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Fencer Intel
critical 10.0

CVE-2021-22205 kev+ ransomware in the critical feed json

An issue has been discovered in GitLab CE/EE affecting all versions starting from 11.9.

published 5y ago modified 2mo ago also BIT-gitlab-2021-22205 , EUVD-2021-9351

cvss
10.0
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Exploited
added 2021-11-03, used in ransomware
epss
99.7%
EPSS 99.7% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 99.9%
public exploits
2
Metasploit and Exploit-DB, plus a Nuclei check

Summary

An issue has been discovered in GitLab CE/EE affecting all versions starting from 11.9. GitLab was not properly validating image files that were passed to a file parser which resulted in a remote command execution.

Patch / fix

cisa required action Apply updates per vendor instructions.

  • bitnami gitlab 13.8.8, 13.9.6, 13.10.3
  • gitlab gitlab 13.8.8, 13.9.6, 13.10.3
  • gitlab gitlab_enterprise 13.8.8, 13.9.6, 13.10.3
  • gitlab Arch Linux 13.10.3-1

arch linux advisories AVG-1822

Is CVE-2021-22205 in your dependencies? Fencer shows which of your repositories are affected as soon as an advisory lands, and opens the fix as a pull request.

Check with Fencer

Timeline

  1. First public exploit (Metasploit exploit/multi/http/gitlab_exif_rce)
  2. Published
  3. CISA SSVC: exploitation active
  4. Added to CISA KEV
  5. CISA patch deadline

Known exploited

Added
5y ago
Patch by
2021-11-17 (4y ago)
Ransomware
Known to be used in ransomware campaigns
Required action
Apply updates per vendor instructions.
Vendor, product
GitLab, Community and Enterprise Editions
CISA name
GitLab Community and Enterprise Editions Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

ATT&CK techniques

How it is exploited and what it leads to, in MITRE ATT&CK terms.

  • T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application exploitation
  • T1059 Command and Scripting Interpreter primary impact
  • T1498 Network Denial of Service primary impact
  • T1496 Resource Hijacking secondary impact
  • T1498 Network Denial of Service secondary impact

kev release 2025-07-28, att&ck v16.1. KEV to ATT&CK mappings by the MITRE Center for Threat-Informed Defense (Mappings Explorer, Apache-2.0). © 2026 The MITRE Corporation. This work is reproduced and distributed with the permission of The MITRE Corporation. Terms of use

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
Active, exploited in the wild
Automatable
yes
Technical impact
total
Assessed
5y ago

Exploit prediction

99.73% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 99.9% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

Exploits and checks

  • Metasploit exploit/multi/http/gitlab_exif_rce GitLab Unauthenticated Remote ExifTool Command Injection metasploit exploit, excellent rank, 2021-04-14
  • EDB-50532 GitLab 13.10.2 - Remote Code Execution (RCE) (Unauthenticated) webapps, 2021-11-17
  • Nuclei template GitLab CE/EE - Remote Code Execution nuclei detection template
  • packetstormsecurity.com http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/164768/GitLab-Unauthenticated-Remote-ExifTool-Command-Injection.html referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified
  • packetstormsecurity.com http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/164994/GitLab-13.10.2-Remote-Code-Execution.html referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 10.0 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 3.1 10.0 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 7.5 AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P
OSV 3.1 10.0 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
bitnami gitlab
>=11.9.0, <13.8.8
>=13.9.0, <13.9.6
>=13.10.0, <13.10.3
13.8.8
13.9.6
13.10.3

Affected products

  • GitLab GitLab

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-94 Improper Control of Generation of Code
Technology feeds

References

Sources

Fencer Intel 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.