CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2016-9086 — GitLab versions 8.9.x and above contain a critical security flaw in the "import/export project" feature of GitLab

Medium CVSS 6.5

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.

Severity
Medium
CVSS
6.5 (3.0)
Published
2016-11-03
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
software/application
Weaknesses
CWE-200

Affected products

  • gitlab / gitlab / 8.9.0
  • gitlab / gitlab / 8.9.1
  • gitlab / gitlab / 8.9.2
  • gitlab / gitlab / 8.9.3
  • gitlab / gitlab / 8.9.4
  • gitlab / gitlab / 8.9.5

Showing 6 representative product identities from 46 source matches. Confirm exact affected versions with the linked vendor and NVD evidence.

Matched remediation archetype

Information disclosure and sensitive data exposure

This catalog composition supplies bounded fallback guidance. Explicitly reviewed curated workflows load with the complete record below.

Check exposure

  • Trace sensitive data through responses, errors, logs, metrics, traces, caches, exports, files, backups, and client bundles.
  • Identify affected subjects, tenants, retention windows, access controls, and downstream copies without opening unnecessary sensitive records.
  • Review metadata, timing, status, length, and existence signals as well as direct content disclosure.

Remediate safely

  • Minimize collection and output, apply field-level authorization and redaction at a centralized boundary, and return generic external errors.
  • Remove secrets and sensitive data from logs, artifacts, URLs, caches, and client-side bundles; rotate credentials that may have been exposed.
  • Update the affected component and add synthetic-data tests for response, error, observability, and export paths.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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