Vulnerability Monitor

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CVE-2021-22863


An improper access control vulnerability was identified in the GitHub Enterprise Server GraphQL API that allowed authenticated users of the instance to modify the maintainer collaboration permission of a pull request without proper authorization. By exploiting this vulnerability, an attacker would be able to gain access to head branches of pull requests opened on repositories of which they are a maintainer. Forking is disabled by default for organization owned private repositories and would prevent this vulnerability. Additionally, branch protections such as required pull request reviews or status checks would prevent unauthorized commits from being merged without further review or validation. This vulnerability affected all versions of GitHub Enterprise Server since 2.12.22 and was fixed in versions 2.20.24, 2.21.15, 2.22.7 and 3.0.1. This vulnerability was reported via the GitHub Bug Bounty program.


Security Impact Summary

This vulnerability carries a HIGH severity rating with a CVSS v3.1 score of 8.1, indicating it can be exploited remotely over the network with relatively low complexity without requiring user interaction requiring only low-level privileges . The vulnerability impacts confidentiality (data exposure), integrity (unauthorized modifications), for affected systems. Impacting 1 product from github organizations running these solutions should prioritize assessment and patching.

Historical Context

Reported in 2021, this vulnerability emerged during an era marked by increased sophistication in supply chain attacks, cloud infrastructure vulnerabilities, and software-as-a-service (SaaS) security challenges. Security practices during this period emphasized zero-trust architectures, container security, and API protection.


Published

2021-03-03T04:15:13.240

Last Modified

2024-11-21T05:50:47.360

Status

Modified

Source

[email protected]

Severity

CVSSv3.1: 8.1 (HIGH)

CVSSv2 Vector

AV:N/AC:L/Au:S/C:P/I:P/A:N

  • Access Vector: NETWORK
  • Access Complexity: LOW
  • Authentication: SINGLE
  • Confidentiality Impact: PARTIAL
  • Integrity Impact: PARTIAL
  • Availability Impact: NONE
Exploitability Score

8.0

Impact Score

4.9

Weaknesses
  • Type: Secondary
    CWE-285
  • Type: Primary
    NVD-CWE-Other

Affected Vendors & Products
Type Vendor Product Version/Range Vulnerable?
Application github github < 2.20.24 Yes
Application github github < 2.21.15 Yes
Application github github < 2.22.7 Yes
Application github github < 3.0.1 Yes

References

How SecUtils Interprets This CVE

SecUtils normalizes and enriches National Vulnerability Database (NVD) records by standardizing vendor and product identifiers, aggregating vulnerability metadata from both NVD and MITRE sources, and providing structured context for security teams. For github's affected products, we extract Common Platform Enumeration (CPE) data, Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) classifications, CVSS severity metrics, and reference data to enable rapid vulnerability prioritization and asset correlation. This record contains no exploit code, proof-of-concept instructions, or attack methodologies—only defensive intelligence necessary for patch management, risk assessment, and security operations.