CVE-2020-2281 in Lockable Resources Plugin
Summary
by MITRE
A cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in Jenkins Lockable Resources Plugin 2.8 and earlier allows attackers to reserve, unreserve, unlock, and reset resources.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/23/2020
The cross-site request forgery vulnerability identified as CVE-2020-2281 affects the Jenkins Lockable Resources Plugin version 2.8 and earlier, representing a critical security weakness that undermines the integrity of resource management operations within Jenkins environments. This vulnerability resides in the plugin's handling of HTTP requests and lacks proper authentication verification mechanisms for resource manipulation functions. The flaw enables unauthorized attackers to perform malicious actions against Jenkins instances that utilize the affected plugin, potentially compromising the availability and proper functioning of shared resources.
The technical implementation of this CSRF vulnerability stems from insufficient validation of request origins and lack of anti-CSRF tokens in the plugin's resource management endpoints. When users interact with Jenkins through web browsers, the Lockable Resources Plugin fails to properly verify that requests originate from legitimate sources within the same session context. Attackers can craft malicious web pages or exploit existing user sessions to execute unauthorized operations such as reserving, unreserving, unlocking, or resetting resources that are typically protected by proper authorization controls. This weakness directly maps to CWE-352, which categorizes cross-site request forgery vulnerabilities as a critical class of web application security flaws that allow attackers to perform actions without user consent.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple privilege escalation, as it can severely disrupt Jenkins pipeline operations and resource allocation processes. When attackers successfully exploit this CSRF flaw, they can manipulate shared resources that multiple jobs or build processes depend upon, potentially causing build failures, resource contention, or complete service disruption. The ability to reset resources particularly poses a significant risk as it can invalidate legitimate reservations and force jobs to wait unnecessarily for resource availability. This vulnerability affects organizations that rely on Jenkins for continuous integration and deployment workflows, where resource locking mechanisms are critical for maintaining build integrity and preventing race conditions.
Organizations affected by this vulnerability should immediately upgrade to Jenkins Lockable Resources Plugin version 2.9 or later, which includes proper CSRF protection mechanisms and anti-token validation. The mitigation strategy should also encompass implementing additional network-level protections such as web application firewalls and monitoring for suspicious resource manipulation patterns. Security teams should conduct comprehensive audits of all Jenkins plugins to identify similar vulnerabilities and establish regular update procedures. From an ATT&CK framework perspective, this vulnerability aligns with technique T1078 which covers valid accounts and T1566 which covers credential access through social engineering, as attackers may exploit user sessions to gain unauthorized access to resource management functions. Organizations should also consider implementing principle of least privilege access controls and regular security assessments to prevent exploitation of similar CSRF vulnerabilities in other Jenkins components or third-party integrations.