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Intellij IdeaApplication · Jetbrains

CVE-2019-9823

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.0 Published 2019-07-03
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 2018.1.8 / 2018.2.8 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges 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
In several JetBrains IntelliJ IDEA versions, creating remote run configurations of JavaEE application servers leads to saving a cleartext record of the server credentials in the IDE configuration files. The issue has been fixed in the following versions: 2018.3.5, 2018.2.8, 2018.1.8.

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

IntelliJ IDEA versions prior to 2018.3.5, 2018.2.8, and 2018.1.8 store JavaEE remote server run configuration credentials in cleartext within IDE configuration files on disk, exposing sensitive authentication credentials at rest.

MitigationUpgrade IntelliJ IDEA to a fixed version and rotate all credentials that may have been stored in affected IDE configurations.

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
Intellij IdeaApplication
Affected:>= 2018.1, < 2018.1.8>= 2018.2, < 2018.2.8>= 2018.3, < 2018.3.5

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
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/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. Determine installed IntelliJ IDEA version
    On Windows, right-click idea64.exe and select Properties > Details to see the Product Version. On macOS, click IntelliJ IDEA > About IntelliJ IDEA. On Linux, check the version shown in the Welcome screen or run the idea.sh launcher.
    Affected if The version is 2018.1.x before 2018.1.8, 2018.2.x before 2018.2.8, or 2018.3.x before 2018.3.5.
  2. Locate IDE configuration directory
    Open the configuration directory. On Windows and Linux this is typically in your user home under .IntelliJIdea/config. On macOS it is under ~/Library/Application Support/JetBrains/IntelliJIdea/settings. Verify this directory exists on your system.
    Affected if The directory exists and contains IDE configuration files.
  3. Find JavaEE run configuration files
    Within the configuration directory, navigate to the runConfigurations folder or inspect the workspace.xml file if it exists. Look for any XML files that define remote server deployment configurations for JavaEE applications.
    Affected if You find XML files describing remote server run configurations.
  4. Inspect for cleartext credentials
    Open the run configuration XML files and search for password, passwordField, or credential-related XML elements. Check whether password values appear in plain text rather than being masked, encrypted, or stored in a secure vault.
    Affected if Password fields contain visible plain text strings that appear to be authentication credentials.

You are affected if your IntelliJ IDEA version falls within the vulnerable ranges AND you have JavaEE remote server run configurations stored in your IDE config directory containing unencrypted password fields.

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 2018.1.8 / 2018.2.8 / 2018.3.5 or later
Fixed in 2018.1.82018.2.82018.3.5
Interim mitigation

Upgrade IntelliJ IDEA to a fixed version and rotate all credentials that may have been stored in affected IDE configurations.

Recommended fix High confidence

2018.3.5 (alternatively 2018.2.8 or 2018.1.8)

  1. Back up your current IntelliJ IDEA configuration and projects (recommended)
  2. Navigate to the JetBrains website or use the JetBrains Toolbox App
  3. Download IntelliJ IDEA version 2018.3.5 (or 2018.2.8 or 2018.1.8 as alternative fixed versions)
  4. Install the upgrade over your existing installation, or extract and run the new version
  5. After upgrading, verify that any existing remote run configurations are re-entered through the IDE's secure credential storage mechanisms
  6. Confirm credentials are no longer stored in cleartext in the IDE configuration files (check XML configuration files in the config directory)
Caveat Upgrade within the same major version year (2018.x) should have minimal breaking changes; patch updates are generally backward compatible

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Intellij Idea Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing1.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
8.0 hours of engineering $1,450
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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-2019-9823 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