CVE-2020-2203 in Fortify on Demand Plugin
Summary
by MITRE
A cross-site request forgery vulnerability in Jenkins Fortify on Demand Plugin 5.0.1 and earlier allows attackers to connect to the globally configured Fortify on Demand endpoint using attacker-specified credentials IDs.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/28/2020
This cross-site request forgery vulnerability exists within the Jenkins Fortify on Demand Plugin version 5.0.1 and earlier, representing a critical security flaw that undermines the integrity of automated security testing workflows. The vulnerability stems from insufficient validation of user requests when interacting with the Fortify on Demand endpoint, allowing malicious actors to manipulate the authentication process through crafted requests. The flaw specifically enables attackers to leverage the globally configured Fortify on Demand endpoint with credentials IDs specified by the attacker rather than those legitimately configured by administrators. This represents a direct violation of the principle of least privilege and demonstrates a failure in proper input sanitization and request origin verification mechanisms.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability exposes a fundamental flaw in the plugin's handling of credential management and endpoint communication. When users initiate requests to the Fortify on Demand service through Jenkins, the system should validate that the request originates from authorized sources and that the credentials being used are properly authenticated and authorized. However, the vulnerability allows unauthorized parties to substitute their own credential identifiers, potentially gaining access to security scanning capabilities that should be restricted to legitimate administrators. This issue directly aligns with CWE-352, which categorizes cross-site request forgery vulnerabilities, and demonstrates how insufficient anti-CSRF token validation can lead to privilege escalation and unauthorized access to security tools.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability creates significant risk for organizations relying on Jenkins for continuous integration and security testing processes. Attackers could exploit this flaw to perform unauthorized security scans against targets of their choosing, potentially bypassing organizational security controls and access restrictions. The impact extends beyond simple unauthorized access as it could enable attackers to manipulate security testing configurations, access sensitive scan results, or even use the compromised system as a launching point for further attacks within the network infrastructure. The vulnerability particularly affects environments where Jenkins is used for automated security testing and where Fortify on Demand integration is configured with administrative privileges that could be abused through this CSRF flaw.
Organizations should immediately upgrade to Jenkins Fortify on Demand Plugin versions 5.0.2 or later, which contain the necessary patches to address this vulnerability. The mitigation strategy should include implementing proper CSRF token validation mechanisms and ensuring that all requests to security endpoints are properly authenticated and authorized. Security teams should also review their Jenkins configurations to verify that credential management practices are properly enforced and that unnecessary administrative privileges are not granted to automated processes. Additionally, monitoring for suspicious activity in Jenkins security scanning operations and implementing network-level controls to restrict access to Fortify on Demand endpoints can provide additional layers of defense. This vulnerability exemplifies the importance of maintaining up-to-date security tooling and implementing proper access controls in continuous integration environments, as highlighted by ATT&CK technique T1078 for legitimate credentials and T1566 for credential access through web applications.