CVE-2020-2091 in Amazon EC2 Plugin
Summary
by MITRE
A missing permission check in Jenkins Amazon EC2 Plugin 1.47 and earlier allows attackers with Overall/Read permission to connect to an attacker-specified URL within the AWS region using attacker-specified credentials IDs obtained through another method.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 04/29/2026
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2020-2091 resides within the Jenkins Amazon EC2 Plugin version 1.47 and earlier, representing a critical authorization bypass flaw that significantly undermines the security posture of Jenkins environments integrated with Amazon Web Services. This issue stems from a fundamental missing permission check that allows unauthorized attackers to exploit the plugin's functionality to establish connections to arbitrary URLs within AWS regions, effectively circumventing the intended access controls that should restrict such operations to authorized personnel with appropriate privileges.
The technical flaw manifests as a failure in the plugin's permission validation mechanisms, where the system does not properly verify whether the requesting user possesses sufficient authorization to perform specific AWS-related operations. Attackers with merely Overall/Read permission, which typically grants basic viewing capabilities within Jenkins, can leverage this vulnerability to execute unauthorized network connections to attacker-controlled endpoints within the AWS infrastructure. The vulnerability specifically enables the use of attacker-specified credentials IDs, meaning that compromised or stolen credential identifiers can be utilized to establish connections to arbitrary URLs, potentially leading to unauthorized data access, exfiltration, or further compromise of AWS resources.
This vulnerability has significant operational impact as it transforms a limited read-only permission into a potential vector for lateral movement and data exfiltration within cloud environments. The attack surface expands dramatically when considering that Jenkins administrators often configure multiple AWS credentials for various purposes, and the ability to specify arbitrary credentials IDs means that attackers could potentially access sensitive data or resources that should otherwise be restricted. The vulnerability also aligns with several ATT&CK framework techniques including T1071.004 Application Layer Protocol: DNS and T1566 Phishing, as attackers could use this capability to establish command and control channels or exfiltrate data through legitimate AWS connections. From a CWE perspective, this vulnerability maps to CWE-284 Improper Access Control, which specifically addresses insufficient access control mechanisms that allow unauthorized users to perform privileged operations.
The mitigation strategy for CVE-2020-2091 requires immediate patching of the Amazon EC2 Plugin to version 1.48 or later, which implements proper permission checks and validates user authorization before allowing AWS connection operations. Organizations should also implement additional security measures including regular security audits of Jenkins plugin configurations, enforcement of least privilege principles for Jenkins users, and monitoring of unusual network connections originating from Jenkins instances. Network segmentation and firewall rules should be implemented to restrict outbound connections from Jenkins servers to known and trusted AWS endpoints. The vulnerability also underscores the importance of maintaining up-to-date software inventory and implementing automated vulnerability scanning tools to identify and remediate similar issues across the entire infrastructure ecosystem. Security teams should conduct thorough reviews of all Jenkins plugin configurations to ensure that no other similar permission bypass vulnerabilities exist within their environment, particularly focusing on cloud integration plugins that handle sensitive credential management and network operations.