CVE-2023-37959 in Sumologic Publisher Plugin
Summary
by MITRE • 07/12/2023
A missing permission check in Jenkins Sumologic Publisher Plugin 2.2.1 and earlier allows attackers with Overall/Read permission to connect to an attacker-specified URL.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 08/02/2023
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2023-37959 represents a critical authorization flaw within the Jenkins Sumologic Publisher Plugin version 2.2.1 and earlier. This issue stems from a missing permission check that allows unauthorized users with only Overall/Read permission to establish connections to arbitrary URLs specified by the attacker. The flaw exists in the plugin's handling of network requests and demonstrates a clear violation of the principle of least privilege in software security design.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability occurs when the plugin processes network communication requests without properly validating whether the requesting user possesses the necessary authorization levels. Specifically, the plugin fails to enforce proper access controls when establishing connections to external systems, allowing a user with minimal permissions to potentially redirect or manipulate network traffic. This missing validation creates an attack surface where an authenticated user can leverage their read-only access to perform actions that should require elevated privileges. The vulnerability operates at the application layer and affects the plugin's network communication functionality, potentially enabling information disclosure, data exfiltration, or further attack vector exploitation.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability significantly undermines the security posture of Jenkins environments that utilize the Sumologic Publisher Plugin. An attacker with Overall/Read permission can potentially access sensitive data from external systems, perform reconnaissance activities, or redirect traffic to malicious endpoints. The attack requires minimal privileges to exploit, making it particularly dangerous in environments where read permissions are granted more broadly. This vulnerability can lead to unauthorized data access, potential information leakage, and may serve as a stepping stone for more sophisticated attacks within the Jenkins infrastructure. The impact extends beyond immediate data exposure to potentially compromise the integrity of continuous integration and deployment pipelines.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2023-37959 should prioritize immediate plugin updates to versions that address the missing permission check. Organizations should implement network segmentation and firewall rules to restrict outbound connections from Jenkins servers to prevent unauthorized external communications. Access control policies should be reviewed and strengthened to ensure that users with Overall/Read permission cannot perform network operations that require elevated privileges. The principle of least privilege should be enforced more rigorously, limiting what actions users can perform based on their specific roles and responsibilities. Additionally, network monitoring should be enhanced to detect unusual outbound traffic patterns that may indicate exploitation attempts. Security teams should also consider implementing automated vulnerability scanning to identify and remediate similar permission-related issues across their Jenkins plugin ecosystem. This vulnerability aligns with CWE-284 which addresses improper access control, and could be categorized under ATT&CK technique T1071.004 for application layer protocol tunneling and T1041 for data exfiltration methods.