GitLab CE/EE < 19.2.8 / 19.3.5 / 19.4.2 - Unauthenticated RCE via Onigmo Integer Overflow

Exploited in the wild. Listed by CISA on 2026-10-29; known to be used by ransomware.

criticalseverity

10CVSS score

69.3%likelihood of exploitation, next 30 days

99%of all CVEs are less likely

Readycheck to confirm it

GitLab CE/EE 19.2.0–19.2.7, 19.3.0–19.3.4, and 19.4.0–19.4.1 contain a remote code execution caused by insufficient regular expression validation in CI/CD configuration, letting unauthenticated users execute arbitrary code remotely, exploit requires crafted regex in CI/CD config

Impact

Unauthenticated attackers can execute arbitrary code on the GitLab server, potentially leading to full system compromise.

Fix

Upgrade to GitLab CE/EE 19.2.8, 19.3.5, 19.4.2 or later.

How to confirm it

Send: GET /users/sign_in
Positive when: contains(to_lower(header), "x-gitlab-meta")
Send: POST /api/v4/ci/lint
Positive when: status_code == 200 and regex("valid.{0,5}true", body) and regex("errors.{0,5}\\[\\]", body)

Run it with nuclei: nuclei -id CVE-2026-97229 -u <target>

The full check

id: CVE-2026-97229

info:
  name: GitLab CE/EE < 19.2.8 / 19.3.5 / 19.4.2 - Unauthenticated RCE via Onigmo Integer Overflow
  author: rapid7
  severity: critical
  description: |
    GitLab CE/EE 19.2.0–19.2.7, 19.3.0–19.3.4, and 19.4.0–19.4.1 contain a remote code execution caused by insufficient regular expression validation in CI/CD configuration, letting unauthenticated users execute arbitrary code remotely, exploit requires crafted regex in CI/CD config
  impact: |
    Unauthenticated attackers can execute arbitrary code on the GitLab server, potentially leading to full system compromise.
  remediation: |
    Upgrade to GitLab CE/EE 19.2.8, 19.3.5, 19.4.2 or later.
  reference:
    - https://github.com/jburgess-r7/CVE-2026-97229-PoC
    - https://www.rapid7.com/blog/post/etr-cve-2026-97229-critical-unauthenticated-remote-code-execution-in-gitlab
    - https://docs.gitlab.com/releases/patches/patch-release-gitlab-19-4-2-released/
    - https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-97229
  classification:
    cvss-metrics: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
    cvss-score: 10.0
    cve-id: CVE-2026-97229
    epss-score: 0.6522
    epss-percentile: 0.9926
    cwe-id: CWE-190
  metadata:
    max-request: 2
    verified: true
    vendor: gitlab
    product: gitlab
    shodan-query: product:"GitLab"
    fofa-query: app="GitLab"
  tags: cve,cve2026,gitlab,rce,critical,kev,cicd,onigmo,regex,unauthenticated,vkev

flow: http(1) && http(2)

http:
  - raw:
      - |
        GET /users/sign_in HTTP/1.1
        Host: {{Hostname}}

    matchers:
      - type: dsl
        dsl:
          - 'contains(to_lower(header), "x-gitlab-meta")'
        internal: true

  - raw:
      - |
        POST /api/v4/ci/lint HTTP/1.1
        Host: {{Hostname}}
        Content-Type: application/json
        Accept: application/json

        {"content":"stages:\n  - scan\ncve_97229_probe:\n  stage: scan\n  rules:\n    - exists:\n        regexp: \"{5(?#)7805}\"\n  script:\n    - echo 1\n"}

    matchers:
      - type: dsl
        dsl:
          - 'status_code == 200'
          - 'regex("valid.{0,5}true", body)'
          - 'regex("errors.{0,5}\\[\\]", body)'
        condition: and

    extractors:
      - type: regex
        name: gitlab_version
        part: header
        regex:
          - '(?i)x-gitlab-meta:\s*\{"version"\s*:\s*"([^"]+)"'
        group: 1

References

Use this check only on systems you are authorised to test. Where the data comes from