CVE-2014-3679 in Monitoring plugin
Summary
by MITRE
The Monitoring plugin before 1.53.0 for CloudBees Jenkins allows remote attackers to obtain sensitive information by accessing unspecified pages.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 03/24/2018
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2014-3679 affects the Monitoring plugin version 1.53.0 and earlier in CloudBees Jenkins, representing a significant information disclosure flaw that exposes sensitive system data to remote attackers. This issue stems from inadequate access controls within the monitoring plugin's web interface, where unauthorized users can gain access to pages containing confidential information about the Jenkins environment and its underlying systems. The vulnerability exists due to insufficient authentication and authorization mechanisms that should have prevented unauthenticated access to monitoring endpoints. The affected plugin's design fails to properly validate user permissions before serving content, creating an attack surface where malicious actors can exploit this weakness to gather intelligence about the Jenkins infrastructure, potentially including system configurations, build details, and operational metrics.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability demonstrates a classic access control bypass scenario where the monitoring plugin fails to enforce proper security boundaries between different user roles and system information. Attackers can leverage this flaw by directly accessing specific URLs or endpoints within the plugin's interface without requiring valid authentication credentials. The vulnerability's impact extends beyond simple information disclosure as it provides attackers with valuable reconnaissance data that could be used to plan more sophisticated attacks against the Jenkins environment. This weakness directly aligns with CWE-284, which describes improper access control issues in software applications, and represents a failure in the principle of least privilege enforcement. The monitoring plugin's architecture appears to have overlooked the need for role-based access control, allowing any remote user to access sensitive monitoring information that should be restricted to authorized administrators or users with appropriate clearance levels.
The operational impact of CVE-2014-3679 significantly increases the risk profile for organizations using affected Jenkins instances, as attackers can gather comprehensive intelligence about system configurations, available resources, and operational patterns. This information disclosure can facilitate subsequent attacks by providing attackers with detailed knowledge of the target environment, including potential vulnerabilities in related systems, build processes, and infrastructure components. The exposure of monitoring data may reveal sensitive operational details such as system uptime, resource utilization patterns, and build success rates that could be exploited for social engineering or targeted attacks. Organizations may experience indirect consequences including compliance violations, reputational damage, and increased attack surface complexity. The vulnerability's persistence across multiple Jenkins versions indicates a fundamental design flaw that required significant architectural changes to address properly, highlighting the importance of proper security testing and access control implementation in plugin development.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2014-3679 focus primarily on upgrading to the patched version 1.53.0 or later of the Monitoring plugin, which implements proper authentication checks and access controls. Organizations should also implement additional network-level protections such as firewall rules that restrict access to Jenkins monitoring interfaces to trusted networks and IP addresses. The implementation of strong authentication mechanisms including multi-factor authentication and role-based access control should be enforced across all Jenkins components to prevent unauthorized access to sensitive information. Regular security assessments and penetration testing should be conducted to identify similar access control vulnerabilities in other Jenkins plugins and system components. The remediation process should include comprehensive monitoring of access logs to detect any attempts to exploit this vulnerability and ensure that proper access controls are maintained. Organizations should also consider implementing network segmentation and microsegmentation strategies to limit the potential impact of information disclosure vulnerabilities. The vulnerability serves as a reminder of the critical importance of proper access control implementation in software applications, particularly in environments where system monitoring and management interfaces are exposed to external networks.