Pivotal Application ServiceApplication · Pivotal Software

CVE-2019-11280

HIGH · 8.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2019-09-20
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 2.3.18 / 2.4.14 or later.
See remediation →
94/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
Pivotal Apps Manager, included in Pivotal Application Service versions 2.3.x prior to 2.3.18, 2.4.x prior to 2.4.14, 2.5.x prior to 2.5.10, and 2.6.x prior to 2.6.5, contains an invitations microservice which allows users to invite others to their organizations. A remote authenticated user can gain additional privileges by inviting themselves to spaces that they should not have access to.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · high confidence

Pivotal Apps Manager contains an invitations microservice that fails to properly validate authorization when a user invites themselves to spaces. An authenticated user can exploit the invitation mechanism to gain access to spaces they should not have permissions for, resulting in privilege escalation.

MitigationUpgrade Pivotal Application Service to version 2.3.18+, 2.4.14+, 2.5.10+, or 2.6.5+ as appropriate. Alternatively, restrict or audit use of the invitations microservice until patching is feasible.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Pivotal Application ServiceApplication
Affected:>= 2.3.0, < 2.3.18>= 2.4.0, < 2.4.14>= 2.5.0, < 2.5.10>= 2.6.0, < 2.6.5

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify Pivotal Application Service version
    Use the cf CLI command 'cf curl /v2/info' or check via Ops Manager to retrieve the installed Pivotal Application Service version
    Affected if The installed version falls within any of these ranges: 2.3.0 to 2.3.17, 2.4.0 to 2.4.13, 2.5.0 to 2.5.9, or 2.6.0 to 2.6.4
  2. Verify the Apps Manager invitations endpoint is accessible
    Confirm the Pivotal Apps Manager web interface or API is accessible to authenticated users, particularly the invitations functionality
    Affected if Authenticated users can access the Apps Manager invitations service
  3. Audit recent space invitation records
    Query the CF API endpoint for space invitations using 'cf curl /v2.space_invitations' or review logs for invitation creation events
    Affected if There are invitation records where the same user who sent the invitation was also added to the space (self-invitation patterns)
  4. Review space membership changes for privilege escalation
    Compare the spaces a user had access to before and after invitation acceptance, looking for unexpected space memberships
    Affected if Users gained access to spaces outside their original organizational or space roles without corresponding approval from an authorized space manager

If the Pivotal Application Service version is below 2.3.18, 2.4.14, 2.5.10, or 2.6.5 AND the invitations microservice is accessible to authenticated users, the environment is potentially affected by this authorization bypass.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

From vendor data
Upgrade available Upgrade to 2.3.18 / 2.4.14 / 2.5.10 or later
Fixed in 2.3.182.4.142.5.10
Interim mitigation

Upgrade Pivotal Application Service to version 2.3.18+, 2.4.14+, 2.5.10+, or 2.6.5+ as appropriate. Alternatively, restrict or audit use of the invitations microservice until patching is feasible.

Fix this in Pivotal Application Service Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation8.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing12.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
28.0 hours of engineering $4,840
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Scan for this in your stack

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dbcve dependency scanner

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2019-11280 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data