GitLab has remediated an issue in GitLab CE/EE affecting all versions from 19.0 before 19.0.6, 19.1 before 19.1.4, and 19.2 before 19.2.2 that under certain conditions could have allowed an authenticated user with developer-role permissions to execute CI/CD pipelines on a protected branch without the required push permissions due to improper authorization in pipeline reference validation.
https://hackerone.com/reports/3832069
https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/work_items/605705
https://docs.gitlab.com/releases/patches/patch-release-gitlab-19-2-2-released/