Vulnerability report

Exploited in the wild Confirmed confidence In CISA KEV

CVE-2023-7028

Weak Password Recovery Mechanism for Forgotten Password in GitLab

GitLab · affected before 16.1.6

Watch CVE-2023-7028 Browse KEV feed
Severity
CVSS 10.0 · Critical
Confidence
Confirmed
Exploit status
Exploited in the wild
EPSS
94.5%
First observed
—
Last observed
—

Decision summary

What security teams need to know first

Direct answers before the deeper technical record.

What it is

CVE-2023-7028 is an unauthenticated Weak Password Recovery Mechanism for Forgotten Password in GitLab. An issue has been discovered in GitLab CE/EE affecting all versions from 16.1 prior to 16.1.6, 16.2 prior to...

Is it exploited?

Yes. Previdian tracks this CVE as a known exploited vulnerability. Confidence is confirmed. Listed in CISA KEV. Also confirmed by third-party sources.

Who is affected?

GitLab affected before 16.1.6.

What should we do?

Prioritize remediation. Validate affected assets and apply vendor fixes on an accelerated timeline.

Overview

Weak Password Recovery Mechanism for Forgotten Password in GitLab

An issue has been discovered in GitLab CE/EE affecting all versions from 16.1 prior to 16.1.6, 16.2 prior to 16.2.9, 16.3 prior to 16.3.7, 16.4 prior to 16.4.5, 16.5 prior to 16.5.6, 16.6 prior to 16.6.4, and 16.7 prior to 16.7.2 in which user account password reset emails could be delivered to an unverified email address.

GitLab Affected
GitLab
Before 16.1.6 Before 16.2.9 Before 16.3.7 Before 16.4.5 Before 16.5.6 Before 16.6.4 Before 16.7.2
Published
12 Jan 2024
Exploitation Reported
01 May 2024
Attack vector
Remote
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None

Tags

nessus_scanner nuclei_scanner cisa

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

CISA

Recorded 01 May 2024

A trusted third party reported exploitation.

Proof of concept available

GitHub

Recorded 12 Jan 2024

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.

Learn about Pro API access
Source Added
CISA First 2024-05-01 00:00 UTC
CVE 2026-06-05 09:09 UTC

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
0
0
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 →

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-2023-7028.yaml 25 Apr 2025
Nessus https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/188030 13 Jan 2024

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

94.5%

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

Weaknesses

Weak Password Recovery Mechanism for Forgotten Password CWE-640

Recent mention · The Hacker News

CyberXero Uses Claude Code in Campaign That Stole Over 628,000 Ukrainian Records

Ravie LakshmananOct 12, 2026Web Security / Cybercrime Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of a two-pronged artificial intelligence (AI)-augmented initial access campaign targeting WordPress sites, e-commerce platforms, and critical infrastructure entities in...

Read full advisory

All Mentions

Recent mention · The Hacker News

CyberXero Uses Claude Code in Campaign That Stole Over 628,000 Ukrainian Records

The Hacker News · 12 Oct 2026

Ravie LakshmananOct 12, 2026Web Security / Cybercrime Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of a two-pronged artificial intelligence (AI)-augmented initial access campaign targeting WordPress sites, e-commerce platforms, and critical infrastructure entities in Ukraine. The activity, which brings together commodity offensive tools like Cobalt Strike with an AI orchestration layer powered by Anthropic's Claude Code, has been attributed to a Russian-speaking, financially motivated initial access broker codenamed CyberXero. The threat actor is assessed to be active since at least...

Recent mention · Wiz

The Infostealer Incursion: How Stolen Credentials Breach Cloud, Code, and AI Environments

Wiz · 25 Sep 2026

Wiz Research analyzes NordStellar data to map the credentials targeted by infostealer families and assess their potential impact across cloud, code, and AI environments.

Recent mention · SOCRadar

Operation Master: Deconstructing a Multi-Tiered Intrusion and Monetization Pipeline

SOCRadar · 24 Sep 2026

Operation Master: Deconstructing a Multi-Tiered Intrusion and Monetization Pipeline SOCRadar Threat Research Unit (STRU) has uncovered an end-to-end cybercrime operation dubbed Operation Master, in which a threat actor c

Potential Proof of Concepts

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

GitLab - Account Takeover via Password Reset

nuclei · Created Unknown

HackerOne Bug Bounty Report #2293343

cve · Created Unknown

Timeline

From disclosure to observed exploitation

  1. 14:20 UTC

    Public PoC available

    Public proof-of-concept code published

  2. 09:09 UTC

    KEV confirmed by CVE

    Exploitation attested by an external source

  3. 00:00 UTC

    Nuclei template available

    Scanner coverage available

  4. 00:00 UTC

    Added to CISA KEV

    Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

  5. 05:12 UTC

    Nessus plugin available

    Scanner coverage available

  6. 13:56 UTC

    CVE published

    Vulnerability disclosed publicly

  7. 20:30 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.

Start 14-day Pro trial Read API docs
  • 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-2023-7028

Sample API response 
{
  "cve_id": "CVE-2023-7028",
  "confidence": "Confirmed",
  "cvss_score": 10.0,
  "cvss_estimated": false,
  "epss_score": 0.94458,
  "exploit_status": {
    "exploited_in_the_wild": true,
    "active_exploitation_observed": false
  },
  "sensor_telemetry": { "attempts": 0, "sensors": 0 }
}