Active DirectoryApplication · Jenkins

CVE-2020-2299

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2020-11-04
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 2.19 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
Jenkins Active Directory Plugin 2.19 and earlier allows attackers to log in as any user if a magic constant is used as the password.

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 · moderate confidence

The Jenkins Active Directory Plugin versions 2.19 and earlier contains a hardcoded 'magic constant' password that, when used, allows an attacker to authenticate as any user in the Active Directory domain. This represents a complete authentication bypass vulnerability due to the presence of this static credential.

MitigationUpgrade the Jenkins Active Directory Plugin to version 2.20 or later. Additionally, review authentication logs for any unauthorized access using the magic constant and rotate all AD credentials as a precaution.

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
Active DirectoryApplication
Affected:<= 2.19

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:3.1/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 the Jenkins Active Directory plugin version
    In Jenkins, go to Manage Jenkins > Manage Plugins > Installed tab and locate the Active Directory plugin, or inspect the version file in $JENKINS_HOME/plugins/active-directory/
    Affected if The installed version is 2.19 or earlier
  2. Verify if hardcoded credentials are configured in the AD plugin
    Navigate to Manage Jenkins > Configure Global Security > Active Directory domain configuration and inspect whether a password is hardcoded in the domain settings
    Affected if A static password is configured in the Active Directory plugin settings
  3. Review authentication logs for anomalous successful logins
    Examine Jenkins logs and Windows Security Event Logs for successful authentications using unusual passwords or attempts to authenticate as arbitrary AD users without proper credential validation
    Affected if Logs show successful authentications that do not correspond to valid AD credentials or exhibit patterns consistent with the magic constant bypass

If the Active Directory plugin version is 2.19 or earlier and a hardcoded password exists in the AD configuration, the environment is vulnerable to authentication 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 a release after 2.19
Interim mitigation

Upgrade the Jenkins Active Directory Plugin to version 2.20 or later. Additionally, review authentication logs for any unauthorized access using the magic constant and rotate all AD credentials as a precaution.

Fix this in Active Directory Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation1.0 h
  • Implementation1.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
5.0 hours of engineering $860
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,376.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-2299 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

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-2020-2299 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.

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