# CVE-2022-39308: GoCD API authentication of user access tokens subject to timing attack during comparison

> Attackers can guess user access tokens via timing attacks on GoCD API, potentially gaining unauthorized access to the continuous delivery server.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 14 Oct 2022
- **Updated:** 23 Apr 2025
- **Also known as:** GHSA-999p-fp84-jcpq

## What is CVE-2022-39308?

CVE-2022-39308 is a medium-severity vulnerability in gocd, published on 14 Oct 2022. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

GoCD is a continuous delivery server. GoCD helps you automate and streamline the build-test-release cycle for continuous delivery of your product. GoCD versions from 19.2.0 to 19.10.0 (inclusive) are subject to a timing attack in validation of access tokens due to use of regular string comparison for validation of the token rather than a constant time algorithm. This could allow a brute force attack on GoCD server API calls to observe timing differences in validations in order to guess an access token generated by a user for API access. This issue is fixed in GoCD version 19.11.0. As a workaround, users can apply rate limiting or insert random delays to API calls made to GoCD Server via a reverse proxy or other fronting web server. Another workaround, users may disallow use of access tokens by users by having an administrator revoke all access tokens through the "Access Token Management" admin function.

Weakness: CWE-697 (Incorrect Comparison), CWE-208 (Observable Timing Discrepancy), CWE-1254 (Incorrect Comparison Logic Granularity)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-39308?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Thoughtworks Gocd.

## How do I fix CVE-2022-39308?

No fix has been published for CVE-2022-39308 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2022-39308 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-39308 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in gocd

- [CVE-2021-43290](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-43290/): Path traversal in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2021-44659](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-44659/): Server-side request forgery in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2024-56320](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-56320/): GoCD vulnerable to admin privilege escalation by a malicious internal/existing authenticated user (critical 9.4)
- [CVE-2022-39311](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-39311/): Compromised agents may be able to execute remote code on GoCD Server (critical 9.1)
- [CVE-2022-29184](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-29184/): Command Injection/Argument Injection in GoCD (high 8.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2022-39308 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2022-39308 is a medium-severity vulnerability in gocd, published on 14 Oct 2022. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-39308 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: gocd. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-39308/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-39308/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-39308
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-39308
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2022-39308

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-39308/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.