CVE-2026-85706

GitLab Community Edition and Enterprise Edition: Path Traversal

As of , CVE-2026-85706 in GitLab Community Edition and Enterprise Edition is on CISA's list of exploited vulnerabilities: CISA listed it on . Our patch-first group: Patch now.

Exploited
Yes: CISA listed it on 11 September 2026
US federal deadline
14 September 20263 days after CISA listed it. US federal civilian agencies must fix it by then.
Used in ransomware campaigns
Not known to CISA
Forensic triage
Required by CISA under BOD 26-04Agencies must also look for signs that attackers already got in.
EPSS score
0.93Higher than 99% of the CVEs EPSS scores. EPSS estimates the chance of exploitation activity in the next 30 days.
Public exploit
1 Metasploit module
Fix
Vendor advice: docs.gitlab.comLinks below, from CISA's entry.

What CISA says to do

Apply mitigations in accordance with vendor instructions, ensuring compliance with CISA’s BOD 26-04 Prioritizing Security Updates Based on Risk (see URL in Notes) guidance and CISA’s “Forensics Triage Requirements” (see URL in Notes). Follow applicable BOD 26-04 guidance for cloud services or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable. Stakeholders are responsible for evaluating each asset's internet exposure and ensuring adherence to BOD 26-04 patching guidelines.

CISA's required action

What the flaw is

GitLab Community Edition and Enterprise Edition contains a path traversal vulnerability that allows an unauthenticated user to read arbitrary files due to an improper path confinement and missing authentication enforcement in the repository commits API.

CISA's description

GitLab has remediated an issue in GitLab CE/EE affecting all versions from 18.7 before 18.11.12, 19.0 before 19.0.9, 19.1 before 19.1.8, 19.2 before 19.2.6, and 19.3 before 19.3.2 that, 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 CVE record's description, from GitLab

CVE published
12 September 2026
Assigned by
GitLab
CVSS
10.0 Critical (CVSS 3.1, from the CNA)
CWE-22
Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal')
CWE-35
Path Traversal: '.../...//'
CISA SSVC, exploitation
active
CISA SSVC, automatable
yes
CISA SSVC, technical impact
total

Timeline

  1. CISA added it to its list of exploited vulnerabilities.
  2. The CVE record was published.
  3. The US federal deadline to fix it.

Public exploits

Facts from Metasploit's module list and Exploit-DB's index; we never copy exploit code.

  • Metasploit: GitLab Unauthenticated Arbitrary File Readauxiliary module, rank normal

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