CVE-2014-2060 in Jenkins
Summary
by MITRE
The Winstone servlet container in CloudBees Jenkins before 1.551 and LTS before 1.532.2 allows remote attackers to hijack sessions via unspecified vectors.
Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.
Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 03/30/2022
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2014-2060 represents a critical session hijacking flaw within the Winstone servlet container component of CloudBees Jenkins software. This issue affects versions prior to 1.551 for the standard release line and 1.532.2 for the Long Term Support branch, creating a significant security risk for organizations relying on Jenkins for continuous integration and deployment operations. The vulnerability stems from insufficient session management mechanisms that allow remote attackers to exploit unspecified vectors to gain unauthorized access to active user sessions, potentially leading to complete system compromise.
The technical flaw manifests in the improper handling of session identifiers within the Winstone container implementation, which serves as the underlying web server for Jenkins. This weakness creates opportunities for attackers to manipulate session tokens or predict session values, enabling them to assume the identity of legitimate users without proper authentication. The unspecified nature of the attack vectors suggests multiple potential exploitation paths including session fixation, session prediction, or token manipulation techniques that bypass normal session validation processes. From a cybersecurity perspective, this vulnerability directly relates to CWE-384, which addresses session management flaws that can lead to unauthorized access and privilege escalation.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple unauthorized access, potentially allowing attackers to execute arbitrary commands, modify build configurations, access sensitive source code repositories, and compromise the integrity of the entire CI/CD pipeline. Organizations using affected Jenkins versions face risks of data breaches, supply chain attacks, and disruption of development workflows that could affect multiple projects simultaneously. The vulnerability's remote nature means that attackers do not require physical access to the system or network to exploit it, making it particularly dangerous in environments where Jenkins is exposed to untrusted networks or public internet access.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2014-2060 primarily involve immediate upgrade to patched versions of Jenkins, specifically version 1.551 or the LTS version 1.532.2 and later. Organizations should also implement additional security controls including network segmentation, firewall rules restricting access to Jenkins servers, and enabling secure session management configurations. Security teams should conduct thorough audits of their Jenkins installations to identify any remaining vulnerable instances and ensure proper session timeout configurations are in place. The remediation process should include monitoring for potential exploitation attempts and implementing intrusion detection systems to identify suspicious session-related activities. This vulnerability aligns with ATT&CK technique T1563.002, which covers "T1563.002: Access Token Manipulation" and represents a fundamental session management failure that can enable broader attack vectors within the target environment.