CVE-2021-22205 — GitLab Community and Enterprise Editions Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
Overview
GitHub Community and Enterprise Editions that utilize the ability to upload images through GitLab Workhorse are vulnerable to remote code execution. Workhorse passes image file extensions through ExifTool, which improperly validates the image files.
Vulnerability details
- CVE ID
- CVE-2021-22205
- Vulnerability
- GitLab Community and Enterprise Editions Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
- Vendor
- GitLab
- Affected products
- GitLab: Community and Enterprise Editions
- Severity
- HIGH
- Exploitation status
- Actively exploited in the wild (CISA KEV)
- Published
- 2021-11-03
Remediation guidance
CVE-2021-22205 is in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog — U.S. federal civilian agencies are required to remediate it under Binding Operational Directive 22-01. Treat it as a priority for every environment.
Apply the vendor's official security update for GitLab the affected product as soon as possible. Where a patch is unavailable, apply vendor mitigations or isolate/segment exposed systems.
Hunt for indicators of compromise tied to this vulnerability and confirm logging/EDR coverage on affected assets.
Authoritative references
Remediate CVE-2021-22205 — and stay ahead of the next one
CVE-2021-22205 is listed in the CISA KEV catalog as actively exploited — treat remediation as urgent. Scan your domain free to see whether CVE-2021-22205 and other GitLab issues affect you and get a prioritized remediation report (full report from ₹999) — or stream the full feed of 1,600+ actively-exploited CVEs straight into your SOC.
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