Jenkins, a widely-used open-source automation server built on Java, plays a critical role in continuous integration and delivery. Its popularity, however, also makes it a prime target for cyber threats seeking to exploit system weaknesses.
Exploitation of Jenkins Widespread Use
The extensive deployment of Jenkins creates a broad attack surface for cyber adversaries. These attackers exploit vulnerabilities to gain unauthorized access to confidential data, potentially leading to disruptions and compromises within software development processes.
Identification of a Critical Security Flaw
A team of researchers at Jenkins has recently identified a severe vulnerability, designated as CVE-2024-23897, which has been given a CVSS score of 9.8. This vulnerability allows remote code execution and poses a significant threat to the security of Jenkins servers.
The flaw originates from a parser feature in Jenkins CLI, which is enabled by default and affects versions up to 2.441. By exploiting this vulnerability, attackers can perform arbitrary file reads through the args4j library, endangering the system’s security.
CVE-2023-23897 enables those with Overall/Read permissions to read entire files and allows others to access the initial lines through CLI commands. This vulnerability could potentially allow attackers to execute remote code by accessing cryptographic keys within binary files.
The Jenkins team has discovered a method to read the first few lines of files without plugins in recent releases. To date, no plugins have been identified that increase this capability. Confirmed attacks involve reading files with known paths and obtaining cryptographic keys from binary files.
