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Fencer Intel
high 8.1

CVE-2021-22863 json

Improper access control in GitHub Enterprise Server leading to unauthorized changes to maintainer permissions on pull requests

published 5y ago modified 4mo ago also EUVD-2021-9998

cvss
8.1
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
1.0%
EPSS 1.0% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 63%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

An improper access control vulnerability was identified in the GitHub Enterprise Server GraphQL API that allowed authenticated users of the instance to modify the maintainer collaboration permission of a pull request without proper authorization. By exploiting this vulnerability, an attacker would be able to gain access to head branches of pull requests opened on repositories of which they are a maintainer. Forking is disabled by default for organization owned private repositories and would prevent this vulnerability. Additionally, branch protections such as required pull request reviews or status checks would prevent unauthorized commits from being merged without further review or validation. This vulnerability affected all versions of GitHub Enterprise Server since 2.12.22 and was fixed in versions 2.20.24, 2.21.15, 2.22.7 and 3.0.1. This vulnerability was reported via the GitHub Bug Bounty program.

Patch / fix

  • GitHub GitHub Enterprise Server 2.20.24, 2.21.15, 2.22.7, 3.0.1

Is CVE-2021-22863 in your stack? Fencer shows which of your repositories are affected as soon as an advisory lands, and opens the fix as a pull request.

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Exploit prediction

1.00% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 63% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.1 8.1 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
NVD 2.0 5.5 AV:N/AC:L/Au:S/C:P/I:P/A:N

Affected products

  • GitHub GitHub Enterprise Server

Classification

Weakness

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.