Skip to content

Multiple vulnerabilities allow bypassing path filtering of agent-to-controller access control in Jenkins

Critical severity GitHub Reviewed Published May 24, 2022 to the GitHub Advisory Database • Updated Dec 7, 2023

Package

maven org.jenkins-ci.main:jenkins-core (Maven)

Affected versions

>= 2.304, <= 2.318
< 2.303.3

Patched versions

2.319
2.303.3

Description

The agent-to-controller security subsystem limits which files on the Jenkins controller can be accessed by agent processes.

Multiple vulnerabilities in the file path filtering implementation of Jenkins 2.318 and earlier, LTS 2.303.2 and earlier allow agent processes to read and write arbitrary files on the Jenkins controller file system, and obtain some information about Jenkins controller file systems.

SECURITY-2539 / CVE-2021-21693: When creating temporary files, permission to create files is only checked after they’ve been created.

We expect that most of these vulnerabilities have been present since SECURITY-144 was addressed in the 2014-10-30 security advisory.

Jenkins 2.319, LTS 2.303.3 addresses these security vulnerabilities.

SECURITY-2539 / CVE-2021-21693: When creating temporary files, permission to create files is checked before they are created based on an artificial path.

As some common operations are now newly subject to access control, it is expected that plugins sending commands from agents to the controller may start failing. Additionally, the newly introduced path canonicalization means that instances using a custom builds directory (Java system property jenkins.model.Jenkins.buildsDir) or partitioning JENKINS_HOME using symbolic links may fail access control checks. See the documentation for how to customize the configuration in case of problems.

If you are unable to immediately upgrade to Jenkins 2.319, LTS 2.303.3, you can install the Remoting Security Workaround Plugin. It will prevent all agent-to-controller file access using FilePath APIs. Because it is more restrictive than Jenkins 2.319, LTS 2.303.3, more plugins are incompatible with it. Make sure to read the plugin documentation before installing it.

References

Published by the National Vulnerability Database Nov 4, 2021
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database May 24, 2022
Reviewed Jun 24, 2022
Last updated Dec 7, 2023

Severity

Critical
9.1
/ 10

CVSS base metrics

Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
High
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

CVE ID

CVE-2021-21693

GHSA ID

GHSA-929w-q433-4h9x

Source code

Credits

Checking history
See something to contribute? Suggest improvements for this vulnerability.