Securing Jenkins

This site is the new docs site currently being tested. For the actual docs in use please go to https://www.jenkins.io/doc.

Securing Jenkins has two aspects to it.

  • Access control, which ensures users are authenticated when accessing Jenkins and their activities are authorized.

  • Protecting Jenkins against external threats

Access Control

You should lock down the access to Jenkins UI so that users are authenticated and appropriate set of permissions are given to them. This setting is controlled mainly by two axes:

  • Security Realm, which determines users and their passwords, as well as what groups the users belong to.

  • Authorization Strategy, which determines who has access to what.

These two axes are orthogonal, and need to be individually configured. For example, you might choose to use external LDAP or Active Directory as the security realm, and you might choose "everyone full access once logged in" mode for authorization strategy. Or you might choose to let Jenkins run its own user database, and perform access control based on the permission/user matrix.

In addition to access control of users, access control for builds limits what builds can do, once started.