vulnerabilityIdentifierSearch not returning partial identifier matches

Summary

For Project and Group Vulnerability reports, the Identifier filter dropdown is populated by projectIdentifiers or groupIdentifiers GraphQL queries, respectively.

These GraphQL queries use the vulnerabilityIdentifierSearch GraphQL field. The documentation suggests these can do substring or partial matching:

The field returns inconsistent results given specific arguments for name (searchTerm). Assume we have an identifier CVE-2025-55173:

  • "searchTerm":"CVE-2025": 9 results returned ✅
  • "searchTerm":"CVE-2025-": 9 results returned ✅
  • "searchTerm":"CVE-2025-5": 0 results returned ❌
  • "searchTerm":"CVE-2025-55": 0 results returned ❌
  • "searchTerm":"CVE-2025-551": 2 results returned ✅
  • "searchTerm":"CVE-2025-5517": 1 result returned ✅
  • "searchTerm":"CVE-2025-55173": 1 result returned ✅

Steps to reproduce

  1. Navigate to Group or Project Vulnerability Report UI that has vulnerabilities with CVE identifiers
  2. In the search filter, add an Identifier filter with CVE-2025-X, with X being the first number in the CVE's sequence number portion
  3. In the search filter, add an Identifier filter with CVE-2025-XX, with XX being the first 2 numbers in the CVE's sequence number portion
  4. In the search filter, add an Identifier filter with CVE-2025-XX, with XXX being the first 3 numbers in the CVE's sequence number portion

Example Project

What is the current bug behavior?

The identifier search inconsistently returns results based on partial search string

What is the expected correct behavior?

The identifier search should consistently return results based on partial search string

Relevant logs and/or screenshots

Output of checks

Results of GitLab environment info

Expand for output related to GitLab environment info 

(For installations with omnibus-gitlab package run and paste the output of:
`sudo gitlab-rake gitlab:env:info`)

(For installations from source run and paste the output of:
`sudo -u git -H bundle exec rake gitlab:env:info RAILS_ENV=production`)

Results of GitLab application Check

Expand for output related to the GitLab application check 
(For installations with omnibus-gitlab package run and paste the output of:
sudo gitlab-rake gitlab:check SANITIZE=true)


(For installations from source run and paste the output of:
sudo -u git -H bundle exec rake gitlab:check RAILS_ENV=production SANITIZE=true)


(we will only investigate if the tests are passing)

Possible fixes

Patch release information for backports

If the bug fix needs to be backported in a patch release to a version under the maintenance policy, please follow the steps on the patch release runbook for GitLab engineers.

Refer to the internal "Release Information" dashboard for information about the next patch release, including the targeted versions, expected release date, and current status.

High-severity bug remediation

To remediate high-severity issues requiring an internal release for single-tenant SaaS instances, refer to the internal release process for engineers.

Edited by Michael Trainor