What is CVE-2016-9086?

CVE-2016-9086 is a medium-severity vulnerability in GitLab, classified under Information Disclosure. CVSS score: 6.5/10. Published 2016-11-03.

How severe is CVE-2016-9086?

Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 6.5 out of 10.

Is CVE-2016-9086 known to be exploited?

13 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

Information disclosure in GitLab

CVE-2016-9086

GitLab versions 8.9.x and above contain a critical security flaw in the "import/export project" feature of GitLab. Added in GitLab 8.9, this feature allows a user to export and then re-import their projects as tape archive files (tar). All GitLab versions prior to 8.13.0 restricted this feature to administrators only. Starting with version 8.13.0 this feature was made available to all users. This feature did not properly check for symbolic links in user-provided archives and therefore it was possible for an authenticated user to retrieve the contents of any file accessible to the GitLab service account. This included sensitive files such as those that contain secret tokens used by the GitLab service to authenticate users. GitLab CE and EE versions 8.13.0 through 8.13.2, 8.12.0 through 8.12.7, 8.11.0 through 8.11.10, 8.10.0 through 8.10.12, and 8.9.0 through 8.9.11 are affected.

Vulnerability class: Information Disclosure

Published 2016-11-03 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 6.5 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.054 (92.4th percentile), scored 2026-10-02.

Low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, but still tracked. 92nd percentile — 92.4% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.054 · newest: 0.054 · change: 0.000

Affected products

GitLab — versions 8.9.0, 8.9.1, 8.9.2

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-200 — Information Disclosure

Public proof-of-concept exploits

References

about.gitlab.com/2016/11/02/cve-2016-9086-patches/ (Patch, Mitigation, Vendor Advisory)
www.securityfocus.com/bid/94136 (VDB Entry, Third Party Advisory, vdb-entry)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2016-9086?: CVE-2016-9086 is a medium-severity vulnerability in GitLab, classified under Information Disclosure. CVSS score: 6.5/10. Published 2016-11-03.
How severe is CVE-2016-9086?: Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 6.5 out of 10.
Is CVE-2016-9086 known to be exploited?: 13 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.