Vulnerability report

Active exploitation observed Confirmed confidence Not in CISA KEV

CVE-2026-19478

GitLab Code Injection

GitLab · affected before 18.11.11

Watch CVE-2026-19478 Browse KEV feed
Severity
CVSS 9.4 · Critical
Confidence
Confirmed
Exploit status
Observed in sensors
EPSS
60.2%
First observed
08 Sep 2026
Last observed
07 Oct 2026

Decision summary

What security teams need to know first

Direct answers before the deeper technical record.

What it is

CVE-2026-19478 is an unauthenticated vulnerability affecting GitLab. GitLab has remediated an issue in GitLab CE/EE affecting all versions from 18.2 before 18.11.11, 19.0 before 19.0.8, 19.1 before 19.1.6, and 19.2...

Is it exploited?

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

Who is affected?

GitLab affected before 18.11.11.

What should we do?

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

Overview

GitLab Code Injection

GitLab has remediated an issue in GitLab CE/EE affecting all versions from 18.2 before 18.11.11, 19.0 before 19.0.8, 19.1 before 19.1.6, and 19.2 before 19.2.4 that under certain conditions could allow an unauthenticated user to remotely modify or delete public projects and user data via a GraphQL directive.

GitLab Affected
GitLab
Before 18.11.11 Before 19.0.8 Before 19.1.6 Before 19.2.4
Published
17 Aug 2026
Exploitation Reported
21 Aug 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 Hacker News

Recorded 21 Aug 2026

A trusted third party reported exploitation.

Active exploitation observed

Previdian sensor

First observed 08 Sep 2026

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

Proof of concept available

CVE

Recorded 17 Aug 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.

Learn about Pro API access
Source Added
The Hacker News First 2026-08-21 07:04 UTC
Previdian Sensors 2026-09-08 20:35 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.

8

Attempts observed

5

Unique attacker IPs

2

Attacker countries

IN · NL

3

Sensors observed

CVE-2026-19478 exploitation attempts over the last 33 days

Daily events observed by Previdian sensors

Updated 09 Oct 2026

0
2
2
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
1
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2
0
0
7 Sep 14 Sep 21 Sep 28 Sep 9 Oct

First observed 08 Sep 2026 · Last observed 07 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
1
4
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.

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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/2026/CVE-2026-19478.yaml 20 Aug 2026

Risk and context

Severity, weaknesses, and research context

CVSS v3.1

9.4 Critical

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

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

EPSS

60.2%

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

Weaknesses

Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection') CWE-94

Recent mention · RecordedFuture

August 2026 CVE Landscape

In August 2026, Insikt Group® identified 73 high-impact vulnerabilities that should be prioritized for remediation, 43 of which had a Very Critical Recorded Future Risk Score. This represents a 14% decrease from last month.

Read full advisory

All Mentions

Recent mention · RecordedFuture

August 2026 CVE Landscape

RecordedFuture · 08 Sep 2026

In August 2026, Insikt Group® identified 73 high-impact vulnerabilities that should be prioritized for remediation, 43 of which had a Very Critical Recorded Future Risk Score. This represents a 14% decrease from last month.

Recent mention · The Hacker News

GitLab CVE-2026-19478 Comes Under Active Exploitation Within Days of Disclosure

The Hacker News · 21 Aug 2026

A newly disclosed security flaw in GitLab has come under active exploitation within days of public disclosure, according to watchTowr. The vulnerability in question is CVE-2026-19478 (CVSS score: 9.4), a case of code injection that allows an unauthenticated attacker to modify or delete publicly accessible GitLab projects and rewrite their data under certain conditions without requiring

Recent mention · Dark Reading

Critical GitLab Zero-Click Flaw Poses Mitigation Challenges

Dark Reading · 18 Aug 2026

A lack of technical details could make it hard for organizations running self-managed GitLab versions to detect potential exploitation of CVE-2026-19478.

Recent mention · The Hacker News

Critical GitLab GraphQL Flaw Could Let Unauthenticated Attackers Delete Public Projects

The Hacker News · 17 Aug 2026

GitLab has released security updates to address a critical vulnerability impacting its Community Edition (CE) and Enterprise Edition (EE) software that, under certain conditions, could allow an unauthenticated attacker to remotely modify or delete public projects and user data. The flaw, tracked as CVE-2026-19478, has been rated Critical by GitLab and assigned a CVSS score of 9.4. Released on

Potential Proof of Concepts

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

EQSTLab/CVE-2026-19478

github · Created 2026-08-27 06:30:36 UTC · 1 stars · AI assessment 90%

GitLab Code injection

punitdarji/Gitlab-CVE-2026-19478

github · Created 2026-08-22 12:07:07 UTC · 0 stars · AI assessment 90%

Gitlab-CVE-2026-19478

CVE-2026-19478: GitLab GraphQL Auth Bypass

1dayexploit · Created 2026-08-21 02:15:00 UTC

CVE-2026-19478: Unauthenticated GitLab authorization bypass via GraphQL @gl_introduced directive, allowing arbitrary method invocation on public projects. CRITICAL.

renzi25031469/CVE-2026-19478

github · Created 2026-08-19 06:24:11 UTC · 0 stars · AI assessment 85%

davkharrr/CVE-2026-19478-PoC

github · Created 2026-08-18 07:14:05 UTC · 0 stars · AI assessment 90%

CVE-2026-19478 PoC . Unauthenticated remote code-injection in GitLab's GraphQL layer

HackerOne Bug Bounty Report #3926431

cve · Created Unknown

GitLab CE/EE - GraphQL @gl_introduced Arbitrary Method Invocation

nuclei · Created Unknown

Timeline

From disclosure to observed exploitation

  1. 20:32 UTC

    Indicators of compromise added (5)

    Indicators of compromise recorded

  2. 20:32 UTC

    Observed by Previdian sensors

    Evidence-backed exploitation signal

  3. 07:04 UTC

    Added to Previdian KEV Feed

    High-confidence, third-party attested exploitation

  4. 04:31 UTC

    Nuclei template available

    Scanner coverage available

  5. 00:00 UTC

    Added to the Previdian watchlist

    Pro and Enterprise Watch users had 3 days of early warning before Previdian confirmed it as a KEV.

  6. 20:10 UTC

    Public PoC available

    Public proof-of-concept code published

  7. 20:04 UTC

    CVE published

    Vulnerability disclosed publicly

  8. 15:04 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-2026-19478

Free JSON includes basic KEV fields 
{
  "cve_id": "CVE-2026-19478",
  "confidence": "Confirmed",
  "cvss_score": 9.4,
  "cvss_estimated": false,
  "epss_score": 0.60204,
  "exploit_status": {
    "exploited_in_the_wild": true,
    "active_exploitation_observed": true
  },
  "sensor_telemetry": { "attempts": 8, "sensors": 3 }
}