Vulnerability report

Active exploitation observed Confirmed confidence Not in CISA KEV

CVE-2023-2825

GitLab Path Traversal

GitLab · 16.0.0

Watch CVE-2023-2825 Browse KEV feed
Severity
CVSS 10.0 · Critical
Confidence
Confirmed
Exploit status
Observed in sensors
EPSS
71.6%
First observed
29 Jul 2026
Last observed
08 Oct 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. 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...

Is it exploited?

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

Who is affected?

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.

GitLab Affected
GitLab
16.0.0
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 Sensors 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.

2,022

Attempts observed

338

Unique attacker IPs

13

Attacker countries

AR · BE · BR · CA · DE · FR · IN · JP · NL · SG · TW · UA · US

20

Sensors observed

CVE-2023-2825 exploitation attempts over the last 74 days

Daily events observed by Previdian sensors

Updated 09 Oct 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
3
0
15
3
6
3
559
163
140
15
60
27
29
86
81
188
39
48
62
33
80
67
49
60
71
7
14
61
0
28 Jul 12 Aug 27 Aug 11 Sep 9 Oct

First observed 29 Jul 2026 · Last observed 08 Oct 2026

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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
6
35
0

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

Virtual patch status

Previdian virtual patch guidance is available for this CVE.

AWS WAF Cloudflare ModSecurity

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.

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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

Virtual Patch Detail

Compensating WAF rules for this CVE.

Available

Enterprise feature. Virtual patch rule content and deployable vendor exports (ModSecurity, Cloudflare, AWS WAF) are available to Previdian Enterprise users.

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Risk and context

Severity, weaknesses, and research context

CVSS v3.1

10.0 Critical

Potential damage if exploited. Separate from whether attackers are using it.

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

EPSS

71.6%

Estimated chance of exploitation in the next 30 days. Previdian's warning comes from evidence, not this score.

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. 12:35 UTC

    Virtual patch available

    Compensating WAF rule available to block exploitation

  2. 00:00 UTC

    Added to Previdian KEV Feed

    High-confidence, third-party attested exploitation

  3. 03:11 UTC

    Indicators of compromise added (338)

    Indicators of compromise recorded

  4. 03:11 UTC

    Observed by Previdian sensors

    Evidence-backed exploitation signal

  5. 14:20 UTC

    Public PoC available

    Public proof-of-concept code published

  6. 00:00 UTC

    Nuclei template available

    Scanner coverage available

  7. 00:00 UTC

    CVE published

    Vulnerability disclosed publicly

  8. 00:00 UTC

    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": 2022, "sensors": 20 }
}