Protected paths

Rate limiting is a common technique used to improve the security and durability of a web application. For more details, see Rate limits.

GitLab rate limits the following paths with Rack Attack by default: 

'/users/password',
'/users/sign_in',
'/api/#{API::API.version}/session.json',
'/api/#{API::API.version}/session',
'/users',
'/users/confirmation',
'/unsubscribes/',
'/import/github/personal_access_token',
'/admin/session'

GitLab responds with HTTP status code 429 to POST requests at protected paths that exceed 10 requests per minute per IP address.

This header is included in responses to blocked requests: 

Retry-After: 60

For example, the following are limited to a maximum 10 requests per minute:

  • User sign-in
  • User sign-up (if enabled)
  • User password reset

After 10 requests, the client must wait 60 seconds before it can try again.

Configure using GitLab UI

Introduced in GitLab 12.4.

Throttling of protected paths is enabled by default and can be disabled or customized on Admin > Network > Protected Paths, along with these options:

  • Maximum number of requests per period per user.
  • Rate limit period in seconds.
  • Paths to be protected.

protected-paths

Requests over the rate limit are logged into auth.log.