Git abuse rate limit (administration) (ULTIMATE)

Introduced in GitLab 15.2 with a flag named git_abuse_rate_limit_feature_flag. Disabled by default.

FLAG: On self-managed GitLab, by default this feature is not available. To make it available, ask an administrator to enable the feature flag named git_abuse_rate_limit_feature_flag. On GitLab.com, this feature is available.

Git abuse rate limiting is a feature to automatically ban users who download or clone more than a specified number of repositories in any project in the instance within a given time frame. Banned users cannot sign in to the instance and cannot access any non-public group via HTTP or SSH.

If the git_abuse_rate_limit_feature_flag feature flag is enabled, all application administrators receive an email when a user is about to be banned.

If automatic banning is disabled, a user is not banned automatically when they exceed the limit. However, administrators are still notified. You can use this setup to determine the correct values of the rate limit settings before enabling automatic banning.

If automatic banning is enabled, administrators receive an email when a user is about to be banned, and the user is automatically banned from the GitLab instance.

Configure Git abuse rate limiting

1. On the top bar, select Main menu > Admin.
2. On the left sidebar, select Settings > Reporting.
3. Expand Git abuse rate limit.
4. Update the Git abuse rate limit settings:
   1. Enter a number in the Number of repositories field, greater than or equal to 0 and less than or equal to 10,000. This number specifies the maximum amount of unique repositories a user can download in the specified time period before they're banned. When set to 0, Git abuse rate limiting is disabled.
   2. Enter a number in the Reporting time period (seconds) field, greater than or equal to 0 and less than or equal to 86,400 (10 days). This number specifies the time in seconds a user can download the maximum amount of repositories before they're banned. When set to 0, Git abuse rate limiting is disabled.
   3. Optional. Exclude up to 100 users by adding them to the Excluded users field. Excluded users are not automatically banned.
   4. Optional. Turn on the Automatically ban users from this namespace when they exceed the specified limits toggle to enable automatic banning.
5. Select Save changes.

Unban a user

1. On the top bar, select Main menu > Admin.
2. On the left sidebar, select Overview > Users.
3. Select the Banned tab and search for the account you want to unban.
4. From the User administration dropdown list select Unban user.
5. On the confirmation dialog, select Unban user.