Objective: Gain unauthorized access to, modify, or disrupt the Gitea instance and/or its hosted repositories.
[Attacker's Goal]
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[1. Compromise User Accounts] [2. Exploit Gitea Vulnerabilities]
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[1.3 Account] [1.4 Brute] [2.1 Code Injection] [2.2 Auth Bypass]
[Takeover] [Force/SSO] (e.g., SQLi, XSS) (e.g., API flaws)
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[1.3.1 Phishing] [1.3.2 Session]
[Hijacking]
Attack Tree Path: 1. Compromise User Accounts
- [1. Compromise User Accounts]
Attack Tree Path: 1.3 Account Takeover
* **[1.3 Account Takeover] (=== High-Risk Path, Critical Node)**
* **Description:** Gaining full control of an existing Gitea user account. This allows the attacker to impersonate the user and access all their repositories, settings, and potentially other resources.
Attack Tree Path: 1.3.1 Phishing
* **[1.3.1 Phishing]:**
* **Description:** Tricking the user into revealing their credentials (username and password) through deceptive emails, websites, or other communications that mimic legitimate Gitea login pages or notifications.
* **Likelihood:** Medium to High
* **Impact:** High
* **Effort:** Low to Medium
* **Skill Level:** Novice to Intermediate
* **Detection Difficulty:** Medium
Attack Tree Path: 1.3.2 Session Hijacking
* **[1.3.2 Session Hijacking]:**
* **Description:** Stealing a user's active session cookie, allowing the attacker to bypass authentication and impersonate the user without knowing their password. This often involves exploiting vulnerabilities in session management or intercepting network traffic.
* **Likelihood:** Low to Medium
* **Impact:** High
* **Effort:** Medium to High
* **Skill Level:** Intermediate to Advanced
* **Detection Difficulty:** Hard
Attack Tree Path: 1.4 Brute Force/SSO
* **[1.4 Brute Force/SSO] (=== High-Risk Path)**
* **Description:** Gaining access to a user account by systematically trying different passwords (brute-force) or by exploiting vulnerabilities in the Single Sign-On (SSO) integration, if used.
* **Brute-Force:**
* **Description:** Repeatedly attempting to log in with different password combinations until the correct one is found.
* **Likelihood:** Medium (Effectiveness depends on password policies and rate limiting)
* **Impact:** Medium to High
* **Effort:** Low to Medium
* **Skill Level:** Novice to Intermediate
* **Detection Difficulty:** Medium to Hard
* **SSO Exploitation:**
* **Description:** Exploiting vulnerabilities in the SSO provider or the integration between Gitea and the SSO provider to gain unauthorized access. This could involve forging authentication tokens, bypassing authentication checks, or exploiting weaknesses in the SSO protocol.
* **Likelihood:** Variable (Depends entirely on the specific SSO implementation and its security)
* **Impact:** Potentially Very High (Could allow access to many accounts if the SSO provider is compromised)
* **Effort:** Variable (Depends on the specific vulnerability)
* **Skill Level:** Intermediate to Expert
* **Detection Difficulty:** Hard
Attack Tree Path: 2. Exploit Gitea Vulnerabilities
- [2. Exploit Gitea Vulnerabilities]
Attack Tree Path: 2.1 Code Injection
* **[2.1 Code Injection] (=== High-Risk Path, Critical Node)**
* **Description:** Injecting malicious code into the Gitea application, allowing the attacker to execute arbitrary commands, access data, or modify the system.
* **Sub-Vectors (Examples):**
* **SQL Injection (SQLi):**
* **Description:** Exploiting vulnerabilities in how Gitea interacts with its database to inject malicious SQL queries. This could allow the attacker to read, modify, or delete data, and potentially even gain control of the database server.
* **Likelihood:** Low (Due to Gitea's use of an ORM, but still a critical area to check)
* **Impact:** Very High
* **Effort:** High to Very High
* **Skill Level:** Advanced to Expert
* **Detection Difficulty:** Medium to Hard
* **Cross-Site Scripting (XSS):**
* **Description:** Injecting malicious JavaScript code into web pages viewed by other users. This could allow the attacker to steal cookies, redirect users to malicious websites, or deface the Gitea interface.
* **Likelihood:** Low to Medium
* **Impact:** Medium to High
* **Effort:** Medium to High
* **Skill Level:** Intermediate to Advanced
* **Detection Difficulty:** Medium
* **Other Code Injection Types:** Command injection, template injection, etc. (Less likely, but still possible).
Attack Tree Path: 2.2 Authentication Bypass
* **[2.2 Authentication Bypass] (=== High-Risk Path, Critical Node)**
* **Description:** Finding a way to bypass Gitea's authentication mechanisms entirely, allowing the attacker to access the system without providing any credentials. This could involve exploiting flaws in session management, API authentication, or other security controls.
* **Likelihood:** Low (Requires a significant flaw in Gitea's core logic)
* **Impact:** Very High (Complete system compromise)
* **Effort:** High to Very High
* **Skill Level:** Expert
* **Detection Difficulty:** Hard