CVE-2023-39155 — chef-identity
LOWCVE-2023-39155 is a low-severity (CVSS 3.1) CWE-668 vulnerability in org.jenkins-ci.plugins:chef-identity. No vendor fix is recorded yet; mitigation options are listed below.
Secret displayed without masking by Chef Identity Plugin
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2023-39155.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2023-39155 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 378,156 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
org.jenkins-ci.plugins:chef-identityReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Maven packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Chef Identity Plugin stores the user.pem key in its global configuration file io.chef.jenkins.ChefIdentityBuildWrapper.xml on the Jenkins controller as part of its configuration.
While this key is stored encrypted on disk, in Chef Identity Plugin 2.0.3 and earlier the global configuration form does not mask the user.pem key form field, increasing the potential for attackers to observe and capture it.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | org.jenkins-ci.plugins:chef-identity | all versions | No fix |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for org.jenkins-ci.plugins:chef-identity, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Remediation status
No patched version of org.jenkins-ci.plugins:chef-identity has shipped for CVE-2023-39155 yet. Where your build allows, override or pin the dependency away from the vulnerable range, and apply any maintainer-recommended mitigation.
Mitigate without a patch
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2023-39155 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2023-39155. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2023-39155 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2023-39155 across Maven dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.