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JenkinsApplication

CVE-2020-2101

MEDIUM · 5.3 CVSS v3.1 Published 2020-01-29
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 2.218 or later.
See remediation →
59/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
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
Jenkins 2.218 and earlier, LTS 2.204.1 and earlier did not use a constant-time comparison function for validating connection secrets, which could potentially allow an attacker to use a timing attack to obtain this secret.

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

Jenkins versions 2.218 and earlier, and LTS 2.204.1 and earlier, used a non-constant-time comparison function when validating connection secrets. This timing difference could allow an attacker to perform statistical timing analysis to deduce the secret value byte-by-byte.

MitigationUpgrade Jenkins to version 2.219 or LTS 2.204.2 or later, which implements constant-time comparison for secret validation.

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
JenkinsApplication
Affected:<= 2.204.1<= 2.218

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

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

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 Jenkins version
    Navigate to Manage Jenkins > About Jenkins, or access /api/json?tree=version, or run 'java -jar jenkins-cli.jar version' if available, or check the jenkins.war file version
    Affected if Version is 2.218 or lower, or LTS 2.204.1 or lower
  2. Check if Jenkins agents/nodes are configured
    Navigate to Manage Jenkins > Manage Nodes, or access /computer/api/json?tree=displayName,mode
    Affected if Any agents or nodes are configured using the Java Web Start (JNLP) agent protocol, which relies on connection secrets
  3. Check for configured CLI authentication
    Review jenkins.xml and jenkins.model.Jenkins.CLIAuthentication configuration, or check $JENKINS_HOME/org.jenkinsci.main.cli.modules.CliAuth.xml if present
    Affected if CLI authentication is enabled using secret-based methods
  4. Identify secret-related configuration files
    Examine $JENKINS_HOME/.jenkins for secret.key, *.key files, and inspect $JENKINS_HOME/secrets/ directory contents
    Affected if Secret key files exist and are used for agent or CLI authentication

A defender is affected if their Jenkins version is 2.204.1 or lower (LTS) or 2.218 or lower AND they have agents, nodes, or CLI connections configured that rely on connection secrets for authentication.

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 a release after 2.218
Interim mitigation

Upgrade Jenkins to version 2.219 or LTS 2.204.2 or later, which implements constant-time comparison for secret validation.

Fix this in Jenkins Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
11.0 hours of engineering $1,930
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,088.

Scan for this in your stack

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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-2020-2101 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