KEV Intelligence

Vulnerability report

Exploited in the wild Confirmed confidence In CISA KEV

CVE-2023-7028

Weak Password Recovery Mechanism for Forgotten Password in GitLab

GitLab / GitLab · affected before 16.1.6

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Severity
CVSS 10.0 · Critical
Confidence
Confirmed
Exploit status
Exploited in the wild
EPSS
94.6%
First observed
—
Last observed
—

Decision summary

What security teams need to know first

Direct answers before the deeper technical record.

What it is

CVE-2023-7028 is an unauthenticated Weak Password Recovery Mechanism for Forgotten Password in GitLab. An issue has been discovered in GitLab CE/EE affecting all versions from 16.1 prior to 16.1.6, 16.2 prior to...

Is it exploited?

Yes. KEV Intelligence tracks this CVE as a known exploited vulnerability. Confidence is confirmed.

Who is affected?

GitLab / GitLab affected before 16.1.6.

What should we do?

Prioritize remediation. Validate affected assets and apply vendor fixes on an accelerated timeline.

Overview

Weak Password Recovery Mechanism for Forgotten Password in GitLab

An issue has been discovered in GitLab CE/EE affecting all versions from 16.1 prior to 16.1.6, 16.2 prior to 16.2.9, 16.3 prior to 16.3.7, 16.4 prior to 16.4.5, 16.5 prior to 16.5.6, 16.6 prior to 16.6.4, and 16.7 prior to 16.7.2 in which user account password reset emails could be delivered to an unverified email address.

Vendor Product Affected Status
GitLab GitLab Before 16.1.6 Affected
GitLab GitLab Before 16.2.9 Affected
GitLab GitLab Before 16.3.7 Affected
GitLab GitLab Before 16.4.5 Affected
GitLab GitLab Before 16.5.6 Affected
GitLab GitLab Before 16.6.4 Affected
GitLab GitLab Before 16.7.2 Affected
Published
12 Jan 2024
Exploitation Reported
01 May 2024
Attack vector
Remote
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None

Tags

nessus_scanner nuclei_scanner cisa

CVE References

Exploitation evidence

Why KEV Intelligence marks this CVE as exploited

Third-party attestation and first-party sensor observation are shown separately so teams can judge the evidence chain.

Exploited in the wild

CISA

Recorded 01 May 2024

Independent exploitation attestation added to the KEV Intelligence record.

Proof of concept available

GitHub

Recorded 12 Jan 2024

Public scanner or PoC coverage increases practical exploitability.

Known exploited vulnerability sources

Per-source evidence links for KEV attestations are available through the KEV Intelligence Pro API.

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Source Added
CISA First 2024-05-01 00:00 UTC
CVE 2026-06-05 09:09 UTC

Detection

Operational artifacts and observed signals

Make the evidence actionable in scanner, SOC, and edge-control workflows.

Observed signals

Request targets
0
User-Agents
0

Raw values available in Pro and Enterprise.

Virtual patch status

No KEV Intelligence virtual patch is currently available. Future rules ship for ModSecurity, Cloudflare, and AWS WAF.

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Scanner Artifacts

Scanner and exploit-framework references linked to this CVE.

Scanner Reference Detected
Nuclei https://github.com/projectdiscovery/nuclei-templates/blob/main/http/cves/2023/CVE-2023-7028.yaml 25 Apr 2025
Nessus https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/188030 13 Jan 2024

Risk and context

Severity, weaknesses, and research context

CVSS v3.1

10.0 Critical
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N

EPSS

94.6%

Weaknesses

Weak Password Recovery Mechanism for Forgotten Password CWE-640

Potential Proof of Concepts

These PoCs are unverified and could contain malware. Use at your own risk.

GitLab - Account Takeover via Password Reset

nuclei · Created Unknown

HackerOne Bug Bounty Report #2293343

cve · Created Unknown

Timeline

From disclosure to observed exploitation

  1. Public PoC available

    Public proof-of-concept code published

  2. KEV confirmed by CVE

    Exploitation attested by an external source

  3. Nuclei template available

    Scanner coverage available

  4. Added to CISA KEV

    Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

  5. Nessus plugin available

    Scanner coverage available

  6. CVE published

    Vulnerability disclosed publicly

  7. CVE ID reserved

    Identifier reserved by the CNA

Pro API

Automate this intelligence

Confidence, exploit status, sensor telemetry, PoCs, scanner integrations, mentions, and tags are available programmatically for VM, SOC, and CTI workflows.

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  • Evidence confidence and provenance
  • First-party sensor telemetry
  • PoC and scanner references
  • Affected versions and enrichment
  • Automation-ready JSON delivery

GET /api/v2/pro/kevs/CVE-2023-7028

Free JSON includes basic KEV fields 
{
  "cve_id": "CVE-2023-7028",
  "confidence": "Confirmed",
  "cvss_score": 10.0,
  "cvss_estimated": false,
  "epss_score": 0.94647,
  "exploit_status": {
    "exploited_in_the_wild": true,
    "active_exploitation_observed": false
  },
  "sensor_telemetry": { "attempts": 0, "sensors": 0 }
}

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