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SamlApplication · Jenkins

CVE-2021-21678

HIGH · 8.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2021-08-31
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 2.0.7 or later.
See remediation →
95/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges

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 SAML Plugin 2.0.7 and earlier allows attackers to craft URLs that would bypass the CSRF protection of any target URL in Jenkins.

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

The Jenkins SAML Plugin versions 2.0.7 and earlier contains a vulnerability allowing attackers to craft malicious URLs that bypass Jenkins' CSRF protection mechanism (crumb validation). This enables cross-site request forgery attacks against any Jenkins URL, potentially allowing unauthorized actions to be performed by authenticated users.

MitigationUpgrade the Jenkins SAML Plugin to a version newer than 2.0.7. If immediate patching is not possible, consider disabling the SAML plugin temporarily or implementing additional request validation at the proxy/load balancer level.

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
SamlApplication
Affected:>= 1.1.3, <= 2.0.7

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
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/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 Jenkins SAML Plugin version
    Navigate to Jenkins > Manage Jenkins > Manage Plugins > Installed tab, or use the API endpoint /pluginManager/plugin/saml/api/json?depth=1 to retrieve plugin metadata. Locate the 'SAML Plugin' entry and note the version number.
    Affected if The installed version is 2.0.7 or earlier, specifically versions 1.1.3 through 2.0.7 inclusive.
  2. Confirm SAML authentication is configured
    Navigate to Jenkins > Manage Jenkins > Configure Global Security > Security Realm, or check the configuration file (typically $JENKINS_HOME/config.xml) for a <securityRealm> element containing 'saml' or 'SamlSecurityRealm'. This confirms SAML authentication is actively in use.
    Affected if SAML-based authentication is enabled and the plugin version falls within the affected range.
  3. Verify CSRF protection settings
    Navigate to Jenkins > Manage Jenkins > Configure Global Security and locate the 'Crumb Validation' settings under CSRF Protection. Check whether CSRF protection is enabled (this is the protection mechanism that can be bypassed by this vulnerability).
    Affected if CSRF protection is enabled AND the SAML plugin version is within the affected range, as the bypass only affects environments withcrumb validation active.

A user is affected if the Jenkins SAML Plugin version is between 1.1.3 and 2.0.7 inclusive, SAML authentication is configured, and CSRF protection (crumb validation) is enabled.

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 a release after 2.0.7
Interim mitigation

Upgrade the Jenkins SAML Plugin to a version newer than 2.0.7. If immediate patching is not possible, consider disabling the SAML plugin temporarily or implementing additional request validation at the proxy/load balancer level.

Recommended fix High confidence

Jenkins SAML Plugin 2.0.8 or later

  1. Identify the current version of Jenkins SAML Plugin installed
  2. Navigate to Manage Jenkins > Manage Plugins > Installed
  3. Locate SAML Plugin in the list and verify the current version
  4. If version is <= 2.0.7, navigate to the Available tab or check for updates
  5. Select SAML Plugin and click Install or Update
  6. Restart Jenkins if required to complete the installation
  7. Verify the new version is 2.0.8 or higher after installation
Caveat Review plugin release notes for any configuration or compatibility changes between your current version and 2.0.8

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

Fix this in Saml Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation1.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
8.0 hours of engineering $1,390
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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-2021-21678 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