Description

OS command injection vulnerability in Jenkins TICS Plugin 2025.1.1 and earlier allows attackers able to control build environment variable values to execute arbitrary commands on the agent running the build.

Executive Summary

Technical Details

Mitigations

References

Additional Metadata

{
  "score": "7.4",
  "pubDate": "2026-09-02T16:17:32.130Z",
  "pubdate": "2026-09-02T16:17:32.130Z",
  "executiveSummary": "The Jenkins TICS Plugin is susceptible to an OS command injection vulnerability originating from improper handling of environment variable values within the build process.\nThis vulnerability is classified as an OS command injection flaw, where an attacker with the ability to influence build environment variables can achieve arbitrary command execution on the Jenkins agent hosting the build.\nAffected versions include Jenkins TICS Plugin 2025.1.1 and earlier.\nThe risk implication is critical, as successful exploitation grants an attacker the same execution privileges as the Jenkins agent process, potentially leading to full compromise of the build agent and unauthorized access to integrated development pipelines.\nExploitation requires the attacker to possess the capability to manipulate build environment variables, which can occur through various vectors such as parameterized builds or shared configuration repositories.\nThe vulnerability does not necessarily require direct network access to the Jenkins controller if the attacker can influence the environment variables that are subsequently processed by the vulnerable TICS Plugin on the agent.",
  "technicalDetails": "The vulnerability resides in the way the Jenkins TICS Plugin processes and interprets environment variables during the execution phase of a build. The plugin fails to adequately sanitize or escape input values provided through the build environment before passing them to the underlying operating system shell or command-line interface.\nWhen the plugin initiates a build, it retrieves environment variables configured by the user or the pipeline environment. If these variables contain malicious payloads—such as shell metacharacters (e.g., semicolons, pipes, backticks, or logical operators)—the plugin may inadvertently execute these characters as part of a shell command string.\nThe attack flow proceeds as follows: First, an attacker identifies a point of entry where they can influence the environment variables used by a Jenkins build task. This could be achieved through job parameters, global environment configurations, or modifications to pipeline definitions. Second, the attacker crafts an input string containing a command injection payload, such as '|| [malicious_command]'. Third, upon triggering the build, the TICS Plugin parses the environment variables and injects the attacker-provided payload into the system command executed on the Jenkins agent.\nBecause the plugin executes these commands on the agent, the injected commands run with the effective permissions of the Jenkins agent process. If the agent runs with elevated privileges, the impact is magnified, potentially allowing the attacker to perform lateral movement, exfiltrate sensitive data such as source code or credentials stored on the agent, or establish persistence on the build infrastructure.\nThe lack of input validation and the use of dangerous function calls—likely involving the invocation of system shells or sub-processes without strict parameterization—form the root cause of this vulnerability. The plugin treats the environment variable as a trusted component of the command string, facilitating the arbitrary execution of shell commands.\nPost-exploitation activities are limited only by the permissions of the Jenkins agent. An attacker can download additional tools, modify source code, intercept communication, or compromise other build tasks sharing the same agent environment. The vulnerability persists across all versions of the Jenkins TICS Plugin up to and including 2025.1.1."
}