What is CVE-2021-22238?

CVE-2021-22238 is a medium-severity vulnerability in GitLab, classified under Cross-site Scripting. CVSS score: 6.8/10. Published 2021-08-20.

How severe is CVE-2021-22238?

Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 6.8 out of 10.

XSS in GitLab

CVE-2021-22238

An issue has been discovered in GitLab affecting all versions starting with 13.3. GitLab was vulnerable to a stored XSS by using the design feature in issues.

Vulnerability class: XSS (Cross-Site Scripting)

Published 2021-08-20 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 6.8 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.718 (99.4th percentile), scored 2026-10-29.

High probability of exploitation in the next 30 days — patch promptly. 99th percentile — 99.4% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.718 · newest: 0.718 · change: 0.000

Affected products

GitLab — versions >=14.1, <14.1.2, >=14.0, <14.0.7, >13.3, <13.12.9

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-79 — Cross-site Scripting

References

hackerone.com/reports/1212067 (Permissions Required, Third Party Advisory)
gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/332420 (Broken Link)
gitlab.com/gitlab-org/cves/-/blob/master/2021/CVE-2021-22238.json (Vendor Advisory)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2021-22238?: CVE-2021-22238 is a medium-severity vulnerability in GitLab, classified under Cross-site Scripting. CVSS score: 6.8/10. Published 2021-08-20.
How severe is CVE-2021-22238?: Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 6.8 out of 10.