CVE-2019-11580 in Crowd
Summary
by MITRE
Atlassian Crowd and Crowd Data Center had the pdkinstall development plugin incorrectly enabled in release builds. Attackers who can send unauthenticated or authenticated requests to a Crowd or Crowd Data Center instance can exploit this vulnerability to install arbitrary plugins, which permits remote code execution on systems running a vulnerable version of Crowd or Crowd Data Center. All versions of Crowd from version 2.1.0 before 3.0.5 (the fixed version for 3.0.x), from version 3.1.0 before 3.1.6 (the fixed version for 3.1.x), from version 3.2.0 before 3.2.8 (the fixed version for 3.2.x), from version 3.3.0 before 3.3.5 (the fixed version for 3.3.x), and from version 3.4.0 before 3.4.4 (the fixed version for 3.4.x) are affected by this vulnerability.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 05/12/2025
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2019-11580 represents a critical security flaw in Atlassian Crowd and Crowd Data Center platforms that stems from improper configuration in release builds. This issue manifests through the inadvertent enabling of the pdkinstall development plugin, which is typically intended for development environments only. The flaw creates a significant attack surface that allows threat actors to escalate privileges and execute arbitrary code on affected systems, making it particularly dangerous for enterprise environments that rely on Crowd for user management and authentication services.
The technical exploitation of this vulnerability occurs through the manipulation of plugin installation mechanisms within the Crowd application. Attackers can leverage either unauthenticated or authenticated access to send specially crafted requests that trigger the installation of malicious plugins. This process bypasses normal security controls and authentication mechanisms that should prevent unauthorized plugin deployment. The pdkinstall plugin, when enabled in production environments, provides functionality that should only be available during development phases, creating an unexpected pathway for privilege escalation and system compromise.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability poses severe risks to organizations using affected Crowd versions, as it enables complete system compromise through remote code execution capabilities. The attack vector does not require sophisticated techniques or extensive reconnaissance, making it particularly dangerous for widespread exploitation. Organizations relying on Crowd for identity management, single sign-on services, and user authentication face potential data breaches, system infiltration, and complete loss of control over their authentication infrastructure. The vulnerability affects multiple version streams simultaneously, complicating remediation efforts and requiring comprehensive patch management across various Crowd releases.
The security implications extend beyond immediate exploitation to encompass broader attack surface expansion and privilege escalation capabilities that align with tactics described in the MITRE ATT&CK framework under privilege escalation and persistence techniques. This vulnerability directly relates to CWE-489, which addresses the presence of debugging code or features in production builds, and represents a clear violation of secure coding practices and deployment security principles. Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including disabling the pdkinstall plugin, applying the relevant security patches, and conducting comprehensive security assessments of their Crowd implementations to ensure no unauthorized plugin installations have occurred. The vulnerability demonstrates the critical importance of proper build configuration management and the dangers of including development tools in production environments without appropriate access controls and security boundaries.