What is CVE-2021-22252?

CVE-2021-22252 is a medium-severity vulnerability in GitLab. CVSS score: 6.5/10. Published 2021-08-23.

How severe is CVE-2021-22252?

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

Vulnerability in GitLab

CVE-2021-22252

A confusion between tag and branch names in GitLab CE/EE affecting all versions since 13.7 allowed a Developer to access protected CI variables which should only be accessible to Maintainers

Published 2021-08-23 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 6.5 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.011 (65.0th percentile), scored 2026-09-29.

Low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, but still tracked. 65th percentile — 65.0% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.011 · newest: 0.011 · change: 0.000

Affected products

GitLab — versions >=13.7, <13.12.9, >=14.0, <14.0.7, >=14.1, <14.1.2

References

gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/330364 (Broken Link)
hackerone.com/reports/1186135 (Third Party Advisory)
gitlab.com/gitlab-org/cves/-/blob/master/2021/CVE-2021-22252.json (Vendor Advisory)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2021-22252?: CVE-2021-22252 is a medium-severity vulnerability in GitLab. CVSS score: 6.5/10. Published 2021-08-23.
How severe is CVE-2021-22252?: Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 6.5 out of 10.