Skip to content

AWS CDK CLI prints AWS credentials retrieved by custom credential plugins

Moderate severity GitHub Reviewed Published Mar 21, 2025 in aws/aws-cdk • Updated Mar 21, 2025

Package

npm aws-cdk (npm)

Affected versions

>= 2.172.0, < 2.178.2

Patched versions

2.178.2
npm cdk (npm)
>= 2.172.0, < 2.178.2
2.178.2

Description

Summary

The AWS Cloud Development Kit (AWS CDK) [1] is an open-source software development framework for defining cloud infrastructure in code and provisioning it through AWS CloudFormation. The AWS CDK CLI [2] is a command line tool for interacting with CDK applications. Customers can use the CDK CLI to create, manage, and deploy their AWS CDK projects.

An issue exists in the AWS CDK CLI where, under certain conditions, AWS credentials may be returned in the console output. Plugins that return an expiration property in the credentials object are affected by this issue. Plugins that omit the expiration property are not affected.

Impact

When customers run AWS CDK CLI commands with credential plugins and configure those plugins to return temporary credentials by including an expiration property, the AWS credentials retrieved by the plugin may be returned in the console output. Any user with access where the CDK CLI was ran would have access to this output.

The following are examples of configuring a custom credential plugin:

Via command line option:

cdk deploy --plugin /path/to/plugin

Via configuration file [3]:

{
  "plugin": "/path/to/plugin"
}

Plugins that return an expiration property in the credentials object, such as the following example, are affected:

return {
    accessKeyId: '<access-key>',
    secretAccessKey: '<secret-access-key>',
    sessionToken: '<session-token>',
    expiration: <date>,
};

The expiration property indicates that the provided credentials are temporary.

Please refer to our "AWS CDK CLI Library" guide for more information about custom credential plugins [4].

Impacted versions: >=2.172.0 and <2.178.2

Patches

The issue has been addressed in version 2.178.2 [5]. We recommend upgrading to the latest version and ensuring any forked or derivative code is patched to incorporate the new fixes.

Workarounds

If you are unable to upgrade to version 2.178.2 or later, you can downgrade to version 2.171.1. If you are unable to downgrade, but have access to the code of the credential plugin you use, you can remove the expiration property from the object returned by the plugin.

For example, change the code from returning this:

return {
    accessKeyId: assumeRoleOutput.Credentials.AccessKeyId,
    secretAccessKey: assumeRoleOutput.Credentials.SecretAccessKey,
    sessionToken: assumeRoleOutput.Credentials.SessionToken,

    // Expiration indicates to the CLI that this is temporary
    expiration: assumeRoleOutput.Credentials.Expiration,
};

To return this:

return {
    accessKeyId: assumeRoleOutput.Credentials.AccessKeyId,
    secretAccessKey: assumeRoleOutput.Credentials.SecretAccessKey,
    sessionToken: assumeRoleOutput.Credentials.SessionToken,
};

Note that this will prevent the CDK CLI from refreshing the credentials when needed, and may cause your workflow to fail on an expired credentials error.

References

[1] https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cdk/v2/guide/home.html

[2] https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cdk/v2/guide/cli.html

[3] https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cdk/v2/guide/cli.html#cli-config

[4] https://www.npmjs.com/package/@aws-cdk/cli-plugin-contract

[5] https://github.com/aws/aws-cdk/releases/tag/v2.178.2

References

@iliapolo iliapolo published to aws/aws-cdk Mar 21, 2025
Published by the National Vulnerability Database Mar 21, 2025
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Mar 21, 2025
Reviewed Mar 21, 2025
Last updated Mar 21, 2025

Severity

Moderate

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v4 base metrics

Exploitability Metrics
Attack Vector Local
Attack Complexity Low
Attack Requirements Present
Privileges Required Low
User interaction None
Vulnerable System Impact Metrics
Confidentiality High
Integrity None
Availability None
Subsequent System Impact Metrics
Confidentiality None
Integrity None
Availability None

CVSS v4 base metrics

Exploitability Metrics
Attack Vector: This metric reflects the context by which vulnerability exploitation is possible. This metric value (and consequently the resulting severity) will be larger the more remote (logically, and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerable system. The assumption is that the number of potential attackers for a vulnerability that could be exploited from across a network is larger than the number of potential attackers that could exploit a vulnerability requiring physical access to a device, and therefore warrants a greater severity.
Attack Complexity: This metric captures measurable actions that must be taken by the attacker to actively evade or circumvent existing built-in security-enhancing conditions in order to obtain a working exploit. These are conditions whose primary purpose is to increase security and/or increase exploit engineering complexity. A vulnerability exploitable without a target-specific variable has a lower complexity than a vulnerability that would require non-trivial customization. This metric is meant to capture security mechanisms utilized by the vulnerable system.
Attack Requirements: This metric captures the prerequisite deployment and execution conditions or variables of the vulnerable system that enable the attack. These differ from security-enhancing techniques/technologies (ref Attack Complexity) as the primary purpose of these conditions is not to explicitly mitigate attacks, but rather, emerge naturally as a consequence of the deployment and execution of the vulnerable system.
Privileges Required: This metric describes the level of privileges an attacker must possess prior to successfully exploiting the vulnerability. The method by which the attacker obtains privileged credentials prior to the attack (e.g., free trial accounts), is outside the scope of this metric. Generally, self-service provisioned accounts do not constitute a privilege requirement if the attacker can grant themselves privileges as part of the attack.
User interaction: This metric captures the requirement for a human user, other than the attacker, to participate in the successful compromise of the vulnerable system. This metric determines whether the vulnerability can be exploited solely at the will of the attacker, or whether a separate user (or user-initiated process) must participate in some manner.
Vulnerable System Impact Metrics
Confidentiality: This metric measures the impact to the confidentiality of the information managed by the VULNERABLE SYSTEM due to a successfully exploited vulnerability. Confidentiality refers to limiting information access and disclosure to only authorized users, as well as preventing access by, or disclosure to, unauthorized ones.
Integrity: This metric measures the impact to integrity of a successfully exploited vulnerability. Integrity refers to the trustworthiness and veracity of information. Integrity of the VULNERABLE SYSTEM is impacted when an attacker makes unauthorized modification of system data. Integrity is also impacted when a system user can repudiate critical actions taken in the context of the system (e.g. due to insufficient logging).
Availability: This metric measures the impact to the availability of the VULNERABLE SYSTEM resulting from a successfully exploited vulnerability. While the Confidentiality and Integrity impact metrics apply to the loss of confidentiality or integrity of data (e.g., information, files) used by the system, this metric refers to the loss of availability of the impacted system itself, such as a networked service (e.g., web, database, email). Since availability refers to the accessibility of information resources, attacks that consume network bandwidth, processor cycles, or disk space all impact the availability of a system.
Subsequent System Impact Metrics
Confidentiality: This metric measures the impact to the confidentiality of the information managed by the SUBSEQUENT SYSTEM due to a successfully exploited vulnerability. Confidentiality refers to limiting information access and disclosure to only authorized users, as well as preventing access by, or disclosure to, unauthorized ones.
Integrity: This metric measures the impact to integrity of a successfully exploited vulnerability. Integrity refers to the trustworthiness and veracity of information. Integrity of the SUBSEQUENT SYSTEM is impacted when an attacker makes unauthorized modification of system data. Integrity is also impacted when a system user can repudiate critical actions taken in the context of the system (e.g. due to insufficient logging).
Availability: This metric measures the impact to the availability of the SUBSEQUENT SYSTEM resulting from a successfully exploited vulnerability. While the Confidentiality and Integrity impact metrics apply to the loss of confidentiality or integrity of data (e.g., information, files) used by the system, this metric refers to the loss of availability of the impacted system itself, such as a networked service (e.g., web, database, email). Since availability refers to the accessibility of information resources, attacks that consume network bandwidth, processor cycles, or disk space all impact the availability of a system.
CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

EPSS score

Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS)

This score estimates the probability of this vulnerability being exploited within the next 30 days. Data provided by FIRST.
(1st percentile)

Weaknesses

CVE ID

CVE-2025-2598

GHSA ID

GHSA-v63m-x9r9-8gqp

Source code

See something to contribute? Suggest improvements for this vulnerability.