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ExploitedIn CISA KEVFix available

CVE-2021-22205

Exploitation confirmed. First attested on 2021-11-03 by CISA-ADP, CISA KEV, GCVE · kevintel, GCVE · shadowserver.

  • Published2021-04-23
  • Fixed in13.10.3 · 13.9.6 · 13.8.8
  • WeaknessCWE-94

Am I affected?

With a domain, we read the version its public headers and pages expose. A distribution build can carry the fix under an older number.

Description

An issue has been discovered in GitLab CE/EE affecting all versions starting from 11.9. GitLab was not properly validating image files that were passed to a file parser which resulted in a remote command execution.

Timeline

dates in UTC
  1. 2021-04-2318:15CVE publishedNVD
  2. 2021-11-03Added to the CISA KEV catalogCISA KEV
  3. 2021-11-03Listed as exploited by GCVEGCVE
  4. 2021-11-03Exploitation first reportedCISA KEV
  5. 2021-11-17Exploit-DB entryExploit-DB
  6. 2026-08-0519:53SSVC exploitation set to activeCISA-ADP

Observed activity

isMalicious corpus · updated 2026-11-04 09:37 UTC
Indicators tagged with this CVE, per day0 indicators over 7 days
Block these indicators
  • Firewall list (EDL, text): https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2021-22205?format=txt
  • CSV export: https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2021-22205?format=csv
  • TAXII collection of exploited CVEs
  • The EDL and CSV take an API key on the Pro plan.

Versions per branch

NVD · OSV
GitLab
BranchAffectedFixed in
13.10≥ 13.10.0, < 13.10.313.10.3
13.9≥ 13.9.0, < 13.9.613.9.6
13.8≥ 11.9.0, < 13.8.813.8.8

as publishedRanges as NVD and OSV publish them; a distribution’s build can be fixed under an older number.

Products declared by the CNA1 product

As GitLab, the CNA that assigned this CVE, declared them in the CVE record; versions as written.

  • GitLab
    Affected
    • = >=11.9, <13.8.8no fix stated
    • = >=13.9, <13.9.6no fix stated
    • = >=13.10, <13.10.3no fix stated

Source: the CNA record (CVE Program), © The MITRE Corporation,CVE Terms of UseCVE recordupdated 2021-11-17

Distribution builds and vendor advisories

Packages from OSV.dev and products from the vendors' CSAF advisories.

version not verifiedVersions not verified: read as OSV.dev and the vendors publish them, not checked against each vendor's release list.

Packages

  • gitlabUbuntu:16.04:LTSall versions · no fixed version listed

Full record on NVD

Fix

  1. Update GitLab to 13.10.3 · 13.9.6 · 13.8.8
  2. CISA’s required action: Apply updates per vendor instructions.due 2021-11-17

Advisories and patches

Detection

read 2026-11-03 22:42 UTC
Nuclei template
available
ProjectDiscovery
Exploit-DB
EDB-50532
Exploit-DB
Proof-of-concept repositories
20 repositories, unverifiedmr-r3bot/Gitlab-CVE-2021-22205XTeam-Wing/CVE-2021-22205r0eXpeR/CVE-2021-22205ZZ-SOCMAP/CVE-2021-22205Al1ex/CVE-2021-22205
PoC-in-GitHub
Metasploit modules
1 moduleexploit/multi/http/gitlab_exif_rcerank: excellentModule metadata: Metasploit Framework, © Rapid7, Inc., BSD-3-Clause.
Metasploit Framework

CISA Known Exploited Vulnerability

Date Added
2021-11-03
Patch Due Date
2021-11-17
Ransomware Use
Known
Required Action
Apply updates per vendor instructions.

Sources

Identifiers

Technical details

CVSS v3 Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
Published
2021-04-23
Last Modified
2026-08-06
NVD status
Analyzed
GitHub Advisory
GHSA-vgp2-3hxm-6x85

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2021-22205?

An issue has been discovered in GitLab CE/EE affecting all versions starting from 11.9. GitLab was not properly validating image files that were passed to a file parser which resulted in a remote command execution.

Is CVE-2021-22205 actively exploited?

Yes. CVE-2021-22205 is on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, meaning it has been confirmed as actively exploited in the wild. CISA requires federal agencies to patch by 2021-11-17.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2021-22205?

CVE-2021-22205 has a CVSS v3 base score of 10 (CRITICAL severity), with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H.

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Sources for this record