CVE-2022-41232 is a high-severity cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability affecting the Jenkins Build-Publisher Plugin version 1.22 and earlier. Jenkins is a widely used open-source automation server commonly employed for continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines. The Build-Publisher Plugin facilitates publishing build artifacts and related files. This vulnerability allows an attacker to exploit a CSRF weakness by crafting a malicious request that targets a specific API endpoint within the plugin. By providing a specially crafted file name, the attacker can replace any config.xml file on the Jenkins controller's file system with an empty file. The config.xml files in Jenkins are critical configuration files that define job configurations, system settings, and plugin configurations. Overwriting these files with empty content can lead to severe consequences including disruption of CI/CD pipelines, loss of configuration data, and potential denial of service. The vulnerability requires the attacker to have low privileges (PR:L) but does require user interaction (UI:R), meaning the victim must be tricked into executing the malicious request, typically via social engineering or a crafted web page. The attack vector is network-based (AV:N), and the vulnerability affects confidentiality, integrity, and availability (C:H/I:H/A:H), as the attacker can cause configuration loss and potentially gain further control or disrupt operations. No known exploits have been reported in the wild as of the publication date, but the high CVSS score of 8.0 reflects the serious impact and ease of exploitation given the low privileges required. The vulnerability is categorized under CWE-352 (Cross-Site Request Forgery). No official patches or mitigation links were provided in the source data, indicating that users must rely on vendor advisories or plugin updates to remediate this issue.

For European organizations, the impact of this vulnerability can be significant, especially for those relying heavily on Jenkins for their software development lifecycle and automation workflows. Disruption or loss of Jenkins configuration files can halt build and deployment processes, delaying software releases and impacting business operations. The ability to overwrite config.xml files could also be leveraged by attackers to insert malicious configurations or disable security controls, potentially leading to further compromise of the CI/CD environment. This can affect confidentiality by exposing sensitive build information, integrity by tampering with build configurations, and availability by causing service interruptions. Organizations in sectors with strict compliance requirements (e.g., finance, healthcare, critical infrastructure) may face regulatory and reputational risks if their development pipelines are compromised. Additionally, since Jenkins is often integrated with other tools and environments, the ripple effect of this vulnerability could extend beyond the Jenkins server itself, affecting downstream systems and production environments.

To mitigate this vulnerability, European organizations should: 1) Immediately update the Jenkins Build-Publisher Plugin to a version that addresses CVE-2022-41232 once available. If no patch is currently available, consider disabling or uninstalling the plugin temporarily to prevent exploitation. 2) Implement strict CSRF protection mechanisms on Jenkins instances, including enabling built-in CSRF protection features and validating anti-CSRF tokens on all API endpoints. 3) Restrict access to Jenkins controllers by enforcing network segmentation and limiting access to trusted users and IP addresses only. 4) Monitor Jenkins logs and API usage for suspicious or unexpected requests that could indicate exploitation attempts. 5) Educate users about the risks of social engineering attacks that could trigger CSRF exploits, emphasizing caution when clicking on links or visiting untrusted web pages while authenticated to Jenkins. 6) Regularly back up Jenkins configuration files and job configurations to enable quick restoration in case of tampering or deletion. 7) Review and tighten Jenkins user permissions to follow the principle of least privilege, minimizing the number of users with the ability to modify configurations.