OAuth2-Proxy's `--gitlab-group` GitLab Group Authorization config flag stopped working in v7.0.0

Description

The --gitlab-group flag for group-based authorization in the GitLab provider stopped working in the v7.0.0 release.

Regardless of the flag settings, authorization wasn't restricted. Additionally, any authenticated users had whichever groups were set in --gitlab-group added to the new X-Forwarded-Groups header to the upstream application.

While adding GitLab project based authorization support in #630, a bug was introduced where the user session's groups field was populated with the --gitlab-group config entries instead of pulling the individual user's group membership from the GitLab Userinfo endpoint. When the session groups where compared against the allowed groups for authorization, they matched improperly (since both lists were populated with the same data) so authorization was allowed.

Impact

This impacts GitLab Provider users who relies on group membership for authorization restrictions. Any authenticated users in your GitLab environment can access your applications regardless of --gitlab-group membership restrictions.

Patches

This is patched in v7.1.0

Workarounds

There is no workaround for the Group membership bug. But --gitlab-project can be set to use Project membership as the authorization checks instead of groups; it is not broken.

Basic information

Type
reviewed
Severity
medium
Advisory on GitHub
Open advisory ↗
Repository advisory
Open repository advisory ↗
Source code
Browse source ↗
Published (advisory)
2025-07-30 16:21:04 UTC
Updated
2025-07-30 16:21:05 UTC
GitHub reviewed
2025-07-30 16:21:04 UTC

EPSS Score

Score Percentile
0.22% 44.51%

CVSS Scores

Base score Version Severity Vector
5.5 3.1
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/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:H)
They need powerful rights—admin, root, or similar—before this pays off.
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.

Identifiers

CWEs

CWE id Name
CWE-285 Improper Authorization
CWE-863 Incorrect Authorization

Credits

  • bohrasd (analyst)

Affected packages (1)

Vulnerable version ranges and first patched releases as published by GitHub.

Ecosystem Package Vulnerable range First patched Vulnerable functions
go github.com/oauth2-proxy/oauth2-proxy/v7 < 7.1.0 7.1.0

References

cvelogic Threat Intelligence