CVE-2021-22234

Exp

An issue has been discovered in GitLab CE/EE affecting all versions starting from 13.11 before 13.11.7, all versions starting from 13.12 before 13.12.8, and all versions starting from 14.0 before 14.0.4. A specially crafted design image allowed attackers to read arbitrary files on the server.

Published: 2021-08-05 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2021-22234 is rated High Exploit Risk (74.5/100): CVSS Critical severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 1.00%). 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2021-22234

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2021-22234

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-15 0.17% 1.00% +0.83%
2 2025-08-16 0.29% 0.17% -0.11%
3 2025-03-30 — 0.29% —

Full EPSS history (10 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2021-22234

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
9.6 3.1 CRITICAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:C)
Breaking this can reach past the original component and bite other resources—bigger blast radius.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 3.1 5.8 [email protected]
6.4 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:C)
Breaking this can reach past the original component and bite other resources—bigger blast radius.
Confidentiality (C:L)
Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump.
Integrity (I:L)
Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 3.1 2.7 [email protected]
3.5 2.0 LOW
AV:N/AC:M/Au:S/C:N/I:P/A:N Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:M)
Exploitation needs some favorable conditions, but not exceptional ones.
Authentication (AU:S)
A single authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:N)
No confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:N)
No availability impact.
 6.8 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2021-22234

OS Trackers for CVE-2021-22234

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2021-22234 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (gitlab), 1 status rows across 1 suites (sid): resolved 1. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2021-22234
ubuntu medium CVE-2021-22234 medium priority: Ubuntu including 2 source packages (gitlab, gitlab-agent), 15 status rows across 8 suites (focal, jammy, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, upstream, xenial): DNE 8, needs-triage 4, ignored 2, released 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2021-22234

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2021-22234

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
gitlab gitlab >= 13.11.0, <= 13.11.7 cpe:2.3:a:gitlab:gitlab:*:*:*:*:community:*:*:*
gitlab gitlab >= 13.11.0, <= 13.11.7 cpe:2.3:a:gitlab:gitlab:*:*:*:*:enterprise:*:*:*
gitlab gitlab >= 13.12.0, <= 13.12.8 cpe:2.3:a:gitlab:gitlab:*:*:*:*:community:*:*:*
gitlab gitlab >= 13.12.0, <= 13.12.8 cpe:2.3:a:gitlab:gitlab:*:*:*:*:enterprise:*:*:*
gitlab gitlab >= 14.0.0, <= 14.0.4 cpe:2.3:a:gitlab:gitlab:*:*:*:*:community:*:*:*
gitlab gitlab >= 14.0.0, <= 14.0.4 cpe:2.3:a:gitlab:gitlab:*:*:*:*:enterprise:*:*:*

References for CVE-2021-22234

cvelogic Threat Intelligence