# CVE-2023-39261: Privilege escalation in IntelliJ IDEA

> The Space plugin in IntelliJ IDEA requests excessive permissions, potentially allowing privilege escalation for attackers.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.2 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 26 Jul 2023
- **Updated:** 23 Oct 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-4386-c34j-3g38

## What is CVE-2023-39261?

CVE-2023-39261 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Jetbrains Intellij Idea, published on 26 Jul 2023. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

In JetBrains IntelliJ IDEA before 2023.2 plugin for Space was requesting excessive permissions

Weakness: CWE-250 (Execution with Unnecessary Privileges)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-39261?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Jetbrains Intellij Idea.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-39261?

No fix has been published for CVE-2023-39261 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2023-39261 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-39261 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Jetbrains Intellij Idea

- [CVE-2026-64812](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-64812/): Missing authorization in IntelliJ IDEA (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2026-64813](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-64813/): Missing authorization in IntelliJ IDEA (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2020-11690](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-11690/): Server-side request forgery in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2019-10104](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-10104/): Misconfiguration in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2019-9186](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-9186/): Misconfiguration in n/a (critical 9.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-39261 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-39261 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Jetbrains Intellij Idea, published on 26 Jul 2023. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-39261 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Jetbrains Intellij Idea. 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-2023-39261/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-39261/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-39261
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-39261
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-39261

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-39261/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.