Vulnerability report

Active exploitation observed Confirmed confidence Not in CISA KEV

CVE-2023-2825

GitLab Path Traversal

GitLab / GitLab · 16.0.0

View live feed Monitor via API Watch CVE-2023-2825
Severity
CVSS 10.0 · Critical
Confidence
Confirmed
Exploit status
Observed in sensors
EPSS
71.6%
First observed
29 Jul 2026
Last observed
10 Sep 2026

Decision summary

What security teams need to know first

Direct answers before the deeper technical record.

What it is

CVE-2023-2825 is an unauthenticated vulnerability affecting GitLab GitLab. An issue has been discovered in GitLab CE/EE affecting only version 16.0.0. An unauthenticated malicious user can use a path traversal...

Is it exploited?

Yes. Previdian sensors observed exploitation attempts with confirmed confidence. Also confirmed by third-party sources.

Who is affected?

GitLab / GitLab 16.0.0.

What should we do?

Patch immediately, validate internet-facing exposure, and monitor for matching requests.

Overview

An issue has been discovered in GitLab CE/EE affecting only version 16.0.0

An issue has been discovered in GitLab CE/EE affecting only version 16.0.0.

An unauthenticated malicious user can use a path traversal vulnerability to read arbitrary files on the server when an attachment exists in a public project nested within at least five groups.

Vendor Product Affected Status
GitLab GitLab 16.0.0 Affected
Published
26 May 2023
Exploited Since
29 Jul 2026
Attack vector
Remote
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None

Tags

nuclei_scanner

CVE References

Exploitation evidence

Why Previdian marks this CVE as exploited

Third-party attestation and first-party sensor observation are shown separately so teams can judge the evidence chain.

Exploited in the wild

The Shadowserver

Recorded 02 Aug 2026

Previdian independently recorded this as exploited after first seeing it in honeypot sensors.

Active exploitation observed

Previdian sensor

First observed 29 Jul 2026

Previdian first observed exploitation attempts targeting this vulnerability in our honeypot sensors.

Proof of concept available

Nuclei Templates

Recorded 12 Jun 2026

Public scanner or PoC coverage increases practical exploitability.

Known exploited vulnerability sources

Per-source evidence links for KEV attestations are available through the Previdian Pro API.

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Source Added
The Shadowserver First 2026-08-02 00:00 UTC
Previdian 2026-08-03 14:02 UTC

Operational indicators for this CVE are listed under Detection.

Sensor telemetry

First-party evidence of exploitation activity

Previdian sensors recorded exploitation attempts targeting this vulnerability. The cards and chart show volume, unique attackers, and daily activity.

49

Attempts observed

15

Unique attacker IPs

2

Attacker countries

UA · US

3

Sensors observed

CVE-2023-2825 exploitation attempts over the last 46 days

Daily events observed by Previdian sensors

Updated 11 Sep 2026

0
3
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
2
4
2
0
0
0
0
3
0
0
3
18
6
0
0
0
0
8
0
0
0
3
0
28 Jul 7 Aug 17 Aug 27 Aug 11 Sep

First observed 29 Jul 2026 · Last observed 10 Sep 2026

Pro adds sensor region and window summaries. Enterprise adds raw IPs, paths, User-Agents, and payloads.

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Detection

Operational artifacts and observed signals

Make the evidence actionable in scanner, SOC, and edge-control workflows.

Observed signals

Request targets
User-Agents
Callback hosts
12
9
0

Request targets and User-Agents available in Pro. Callback host details available in Enterprise.

Virtual patch status

No Previdian virtual patch is currently available. Future rules ship for ModSecurity, Cloudflare, and AWS WAF.

Learn about virtual patches →

Attacker IP Indicators

Attacker IP indicators observed · available in Pro and Enterprise.

Sensor-derived attacker IP indicators are available to Pro and Enterprise accounts under Detection and through the Pro API.

Learn about Pro API access

Scanner Artifacts

Scanner and exploit-framework references linked to this CVE.

Scanner Reference Detected
Nuclei https://github.com/projectdiscovery/nuclei-templates/blob/main/http/cves/2023/CVE-2023-2825.yaml 25 Apr 2025

Risk and context

Severity, weaknesses, and research context

CVSS v3.1

10.0 Critical
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N

EPSS

71.6%

Weaknesses

Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal') CWE-22

Recent mention · BleepingComputer

GitLab urges users to patch max severity path traversal flaw

GitLab urged users on Thursday to patch their servers immediately against a maximum-severity path traversal vulnerability tracked as CVE-2023-2825. [...]

Read full advisory

Potential Proof of Concepts

These PoCs are unverified and could contain malware. Use at your own risk.

GitLab 16.0.0 - Path Traversal

nuclei · Created Unknown

Timeline

From disclosure to observed exploitation

  1. Added to Previdian KEV Feed

    High-confidence, third-party attested exploitation

  2. Indicators of compromise added (17)

    Indicators of compromise recorded

  3. Observed by Previdian sensors

    Evidence-backed exploitation signal

  4. Public PoC available

    Public proof-of-concept code published

  5. Nuclei template available

    Scanner coverage available

  6. CVE published

    Vulnerability disclosed publicly

  7. CVE ID reserved

    Identifier reserved by the CNA

Pro API

Automate this intelligence

Confidence, exploit status, sensor telemetry, PoCs, scanner integrations, mentions, and tags are available programmatically for VM, SOC, and CTI workflows.

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  • Evidence confidence and provenance
  • First-party sensor telemetry
  • PoC and scanner references
  • Affected versions and enrichment
  • Automation-ready JSON delivery

GET /api/v2/pro/kevs/CVE-2023-2825

Free JSON includes basic KEV fields 
{
  "cve_id": "CVE-2023-2825",
  "confidence": "Confirmed",
  "cvss_score": 10.0,
  "cvss_estimated": false,
  "epss_score": 0.71641,
  "exploit_status": {
    "exploited_in_the_wild": true,
    "active_exploitation_observed": true
  },
  "sensor_telemetry": { "attempts": 49, "sensors": 3 }
}