CVE-2023-7028 | Weak Password Recovery Mechanism for Forgotten Password in GitLab

Exp

An issue has been discovered in GitLab CE/EE affecting all versions from 16.1 prior to 16.1.6, 16.2 prior to 16.2.9, 16.3 prior to 16.3.7, 16.4 prior to 16.4.5, 16.5 prior to 16.5.6, 16.6 prior to 16.6.4, and 16.7 prior to 16.7.2 in which user account password reset emails could be delivered to an unverified email address.

Published: 2024-01-12 Last update: 2025-10-24 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Analyzed，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2023-7028 is rated Critical Active Threat (99.8/100): CVSS Critical severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 93.43%, 100th percentile). CISA KEV confirms active exploitation (added 2024-05-01) affecting GitLab / GitLab CE/EE. a weakness (CWE-640) Unauthenticated remote administrative access may be possible. The CISA remediation deadline has passed—treat as an emergency patch priority.

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

CISA KEV Record for CVE-2023-7028

Name: GitLab Community and Enterprise Editions Improper Access Control Vulnerability · CISA KEV detail

Exploit added: 2024-05-01

Action due: 2024-05-22

Required action: Apply mitigations per vendor instructions or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2023-7028

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
51889 exploit_db edb 2024-03-14 Exploit-DB ↗
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2023-7028

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 2026-06-04 93.54% 93.43% -0.11%
2 2026-06-03 93.82% 93.54% -0.28%
3 2026-05-09 — 93.82% —

Full EPSS history (77 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-7028

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
10.0 3.1 CRITICAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/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:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
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.
 3.9 5.8 [email protected]
9.8 3.1 CRITICAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H 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:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
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:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 3.9 5.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-7028

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-7028

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2023-7028 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-2023-7028
ubuntu medium CVE-2023-7028 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (gitlab), 9 status rows across 9 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, lunar, mantic, noble, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 5, ignored 3, needs-triage 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-7028

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-7028

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
gitlab gitlab >= 16.1.0, < 16.1.6 cpe:2.3:a:gitlab:gitlab:*:*:*:*:community:*:*:*
gitlab gitlab >= 16.1.0, < 16.1.6 cpe:2.3:a:gitlab:gitlab:*:*:*:*:enterprise:*:*:*
gitlab gitlab >= 16.2.0, < 16.2.9 cpe:2.3:a:gitlab:gitlab:*:*:*:*:community:*:*:*
gitlab gitlab >= 16.2.0, < 16.2.9 cpe:2.3:a:gitlab:gitlab:*:*:*:*:enterprise:*:*:*
gitlab gitlab >= 16.3.0, < 16.3.7 cpe:2.3:a:gitlab:gitlab:*:*:*:*:community:*:*:*
gitlab gitlab >= 16.3.0, < 16.3.7 cpe:2.3:a:gitlab:gitlab:*:*:*:*:enterprise:*:*:*
gitlab gitlab >= 16.4.0, < 16.4.5 cpe:2.3:a:gitlab:gitlab:*:*:*:*:community:*:*:*
gitlab gitlab >= 16.4.0, < 16.4.5 cpe:2.3:a:gitlab:gitlab:*:*:*:*:enterprise:*:*:*
gitlab gitlab >= 16.5.0, < 16.5.6 cpe:2.3:a:gitlab:gitlab:*:*:*:*:community:*:*:*
gitlab gitlab >= 16.5.0, < 16.5.6 cpe:2.3:a:gitlab:gitlab:*:*:*:*:enterprise:*:*:*
gitlab gitlab >= 16.6.0, < 16.6.4 cpe:2.3:a:gitlab:gitlab:*:*:*:*:community:*:*:*
gitlab gitlab >= 16.6.0, < 16.6.4 cpe:2.3:a:gitlab:gitlab:*:*:*:*:enterprise:*:*:*
gitlab gitlab >= 16.7.0, < 16.7.2 cpe:2.3:a:gitlab:gitlab:*:*:*:*:community:*:*:*
gitlab gitlab >= 16.7.0, < 16.7.2 cpe:2.3:a:gitlab:gitlab:*:*:*:*:enterprise:*:*:*

References for CVE-2023-7028

cvelogic Threat Intelligence