Max severity GitLab path traversal flaw under active reconnaissance

GitLab patched a maximum-severity vulnerability in GitLab Community Edition (CE) and Enterprise Edition (EE) that is being actively probed in the wild, according to watchTowr.  

The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-85706 and reported by s3ntago via GitLab’s HackerOne bug bounty program, was patched by GitLab on Thursday in GitLab CE/EE versions 19.1.8, 19.2.6 and 19.3.2. It has a CVSS score of 10.0.

“Under certain conditions, an unauthenticated user could have read arbitrary files from the GitLab server due to improper path confinement and missing authentication enforcement in the repository commits API,” the vulnerability description reads.

In a statement provided to SC Media, WatchTowr Head of Threat Intelligence Jake Knott said that active probes for CVE-2026-85706 were detected against watchTowr’s Attacker Eye honeypot network as of 6:00 UTC on Sept.11, indicating rapid reverse engineering of the flaw. WatchTowr also stated that it managed to reproduce the flaw and validate exposure of self-managed GitLab clients.

The vulnerability could allow an attacker to read arbitrary files via an unauthenticated HTTP request, with the only requirement being one public project existing on the targeted instance, Knott described. Common sensitive files that could contain credentials, keys and tokens, such as log files, are likely to be targeted, Knott added.

“The appeal to attackers of GitLab is obvious, as unauthorized access allows an attacker to gain access to source code, CI/CD secrets, credentials, and the ability to inject code into build pipelines, gaining access or poisoning anything downstream of it, which as we’ve seen throughout the year has been a favorite of attackers,” Knott stated.

Operators of self-managed GitLab instances are urged to upgrade to the patched versions immediately, while GitLab Dedicated customers and users of GitLab.com do not need to take action.

WatchTowr also recommends self-managed customers review their log files for HTTP POST requests to “/api/v4/projects/[id]/repository/commits/” URIs that contain “file.path” parameters, which could indicate potential exploitation of CVE-2026-85706.

GitLab patched another critical vulnerability in GitLab EE on Thursday. Tracked as CVE-2026-87719, with a CVSS score of 9.9, the vulnerability allows an authenticated user with Duo Chat access to use a specially crafted GraphQL subscription argument to bypass serialization and perform server object lookup, enabling them to obtain sensitive credentials and Advanced Search instance configurations.

GitLab flaw patched another critical flaw, tracked as CVE-2026-19478, last month, which Knott told SC Media also came under active exploitation shortly after it disclosure. This flaw, which was patched in GitLab CE/EE versions 18.11.11, 19.0.8, 19.1.6 and 19.2.4, could allow an unauthenticated user to remotely modify or delete public project and user data via the GraphQL directive.