CVE-2020-2322 in Chaos Monkey Plugin
Summary
by MITRE • 12/03/2020
Jenkins Chaos Monkey Plugin 0.3 and earlier does not perform permission checks in several HTTP endpoints, allowing attackers with Overall/Read permission to generate load and to generate memory leaks.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 12/12/2020
The Jenkins Chaos Monkey Plugin vulnerability represents a critical authorization bypass issue that undermines the security posture of continuous integration and deployment environments. This flaw affects versions 0.3 and earlier of the plugin, which is designed to introduce controlled chaos into systems for resilience testing purposes. The vulnerability stems from inadequate permission validation within multiple HTTP endpoints, creating a pathway for unauthorized actions that can significantly impact system stability and performance. The plugin's intended function of simulating system failures and stress conditions becomes a weaponized feature when proper access controls are absent, transforming legitimate testing capabilities into potential attack vectors.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability manifests through the absence of proper authentication and authorization checks in the plugin's web endpoints. Attackers with only Overall/Read permission, which is typically considered a low-privilege level for viewing system information, can exploit this flaw to execute actions that consume excessive system resources. The vulnerability allows for both load generation and memory leak creation, which can lead to denial of service conditions and system instability. This represents a classic case of insufficient authorization controls where the plugin fails to verify that users possess the appropriate privileges before executing potentially harmful operations. The flaw directly violates security principle of least privilege and demonstrates poor input validation and access control implementation.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple resource consumption to potentially compromise entire CI/CD pipelines and development environments. When attackers leverage this vulnerability, they can generate artificial load that may cause legitimate build processes to fail or slow dramatically, leading to production delays and operational disruptions. Memory leak generation can gradually degrade system performance until complete system failure occurs, particularly in resource-constrained environments. The attack surface is particularly dangerous in automated environments where Jenkins serves as a central hub for software delivery processes, as the consequences of such attacks can cascade across multiple projects and teams. This vulnerability effectively allows attackers to perform privilege escalation through resource exhaustion techniques, which aligns with attack patterns documented in the attack framework.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability require immediate plugin version updates to patched releases that implement proper authorization checks. Organizations should also implement network segmentation and access controls to limit exposure of Jenkins instances to untrusted networks. The principle of least privilege should be strictly enforced, ensuring that only authorized personnel have access to system management functions. Additionally, monitoring and logging of unusual resource consumption patterns can help detect exploitation attempts. Security teams should conduct regular vulnerability assessments of Jenkins plugins and maintain updated inventories of installed plugins to prevent similar issues. This vulnerability demonstrates the importance of thorough security testing for plugins and the need for comprehensive access control mechanisms in enterprise automation platforms. The issue aligns with CWE-284 which addresses improper access control and represents a clear violation of the principle that systems should verify access rights before performing privileged operations.