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Intellij IdeaApplication · Jetbrains

CVE-2019-9873

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.0 Published 2019-07-03
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 2019.1 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 versions of JetBrains IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate, creating Task Servers configurations leads to saving a cleartext unencrypted record of the server credentials in the IDE configuration files. The issue has been fixed in the following versions: 2019.1, 2018.3.5, 2018.2.8, and 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

JetBrains IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate stores Task Server credentials in cleartext, unencrypted form within IDE configuration files when users create Task Servers configurations, allowing credential exposure to anyone with access to those files.

MitigationUpgrade IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate to version 2019.1 or later (or 2018.3.5/2018.2.8/2018.1.8 as applicable) and rotate any credentials that may have been stored in affected 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:< 2019.1

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. Check IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate version
    Open IntelliJ IDEA, go to Help > About, and note the version number displayed
    Affected if The version is earlier than 2019.1 (for example, 2018.x, 2017.x, or earlier)
  2. Determine if Task Server has been configured
    Navigate to Settings > Tasks > Servers (or equivalent Task Server configuration area in the IDE)
    Affected if Any Task Server entries have been configured by the user
  3. Locate IDE configuration directory
    Check the IntelliJ configuration path - typically found in the IDE settings directory (for example, ~/.IntelliJIdea/VERSION/config/ on Linux/macOS or %USERPROFILE%\.IntelliJIdea\VERSION\config\ on Windows)
    Affected if The configuration directory exists and contains Task Server-related settings
  4. Inspect configuration files for Task Server credentials
    Open configuration files (such as taskservers.xml or similar Task Server configuration files) in a text editor and search for stored credentials or passwords
    Affected if Credentials, passwords, or authentication tokens appear in cleartext (unencrypted) within these configuration files

The user is affected if they use IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate version earlier than 2019.1 AND have configured a Task Server, with credentials stored in cleartext within the IDE configuration files.

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 2019.1 or later
Fixed in 2019.1
Interim mitigation

Upgrade IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate to version 2019.1 or later (or 2018.3.5/2018.2.8/2018.1.8 as applicable) and rotate any credentials that may have been stored in affected configurations.

Recommended fix High confidence

IntelliJ IDEA 2019.1 or later (also available: 2018.3.5, 2018.2.8, 2018.1.8)

  1. Back up your current IntelliJ IDEA configuration files, especially any Task Server configurations containing credentials
  2. Download IntelliJ IDEA version 2019.1 or later from the official JetBrains website (www.jetbrains.com/idea/download)
  3. Uninstall the current version or install the new version alongside the existing installation
  4. Launch the upgraded IntelliJ IDEA
  5. After upgrading, immediately change the passwords/credentials for any Task Servers that were configured in the old version, as these may have been stored in cleartext
  6. Consider removing and re-adding Task Server configurations in the upgraded IDE to ensure credentials are handled properly
Caveat IDE upgrades may require reconfiguration of some plugins and settings; backup configuration before upgrading

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

Fix this in Intellij Idea Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation1.0 h
  • Implementation1.0 h
  • Testing1.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
4.0 hours of engineering $750
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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-2019-9873 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