GitLab has remediated an issue in GitLab CE/EE affecting all versions from 19.2 before 19.2.8, 19.3 before 19.3.5, and 19.4 before 19.4.2 that, under certain conditions, could have allowed an unauthenticated user to execute arbitrary code on the GitLab server via a specially crafted regular expression in a CI/CD configuration, due to insufficient regular expression validation.
Fix
Microsoft's update · Critical
- Release Notes — azl4 ruby 3.4.10-36.azl4 on Azure Linux 4.0 · build 0:3.4.12-38.azl4
- Release Notes — azl3 ruby 3.3.5-10 on Azure Linux 3.0 · build 3.3.13-0
From the 2026-Oct release note of Microsoft's Security Update Guide, revised 2026-10-29.
Public exploits 4
- AmpedWasTaken/CVE-2026-97229-GitLab-CI-CD-Regex-Compiler-RCE PoC on GitHub
- Noshadi-sec/CVE-2026-97229 PoC on GitHub
- gandli/cve-2026-97229-lab PoC on GitHub
- jburgess-r7/CVE-2026-97229-PoC PoC on GitHub
Each line links to the index that lists it, never to exploit code. Exploit-DB's "verified" and a Metasploit rank of good or better count as verified; a PoC-in-GitHub entry is a repository's claim.
Patch, vendor advisory and mitigation references on NVD 1
- https://docs.gitlab.com/releases/patches/patch-release-gitlab-19-4-2-released/ Release Notes, Vendor Advisory
Every line above is quoted from NVD, CISA, Microsoft, the vendor's own advisory or DISA; nothing is generated.
In the news 7
- Attacker Tried to Exploit Alpine Linux’s GitLab via CVSS 10.0 Flaw Its Ruby Left Open The Hacker News · 2026-10-29
- GitLab Security Incident: Attempted Exploitation of CVE-2026-97229 Hacker News (security terms) · 2026-10-28
- Regexp compilation fixes related to GitLab's CVE-2026-89078, CVE-2026-93577, CVE-2026-97229 and CVE-2026-110264 | Ruby r/blueteamsec · 2026-10-23
- Rapid7 Analysis: GitLab CI/CD Regex Integer Overflow (CVE-2026-97229) Rapid7 blog · 2026-10-16
- GitLab admins urged to patch critical RCE flaw (CVE-2026-97229) - Help Net Security r/cybersecurity · 2026-10-13
- CVE-2026-97229: Critical Unauthenticated Remote Code Execution in GitLab Rapid7 blog · 2026-10-13
- Patch Now: GitLab CE/EE Max-Severity Flaw SANS NewsBites · 2026-10-12
Change history 1
- First seenCVSS 10.0 · gitlabNVD modified 2026-10-14 13:55
Affected (CPE criteria) 2
cpe:2.3:a:gitlab:gitlab:*:*:*:*:community:*:*:*cpe:2.3:a:gitlab:gitlab:*:*:*:*:enterprise:*:*:*
References 4
- https://docs.gitlab.com/releases/patches/patch-release-gitlab-19-4-2-released/ Release Notes, Vendor Advisory
- https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/work_items/630686 Issue Tracking
- https://hackerone.com/reports/4055749 Permissions Required
- https://hackerone.com/reports/4058589 Permissions Required