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Atlassian CVE-2023-22515

CRITICAL
Improper Input Validation (CWE-20)
2023-10-04 security@atlassian.com
9.8
CVSS 3.1 · NVD
View

Vulnerability Assessment

Weakness
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A05:2025 - Injection
ASVS 5.0
V2 - Validation and Business Logic Input validation, allowlisting
Impact

CVSS score of 9.8 (CRITICAL). Attack characteristics: network attack vector, low complexity, no privileges required, no user interaction not required. CISA has confirmed active exploitation in the wild. Public proof-of-concept exploit code is available. EPSS exploitation probability: 94.33%.

Exploit ScenarioDerived

This vulnerability can be exploited remotely over the network. Successful exploitation could compromise the critical-severity affected system.

Emergency Immediate action required. Why: CRITICAL + in CISA KEV (actively exploited), no patch available.
Exploited in the wild (CISA KEV) No patch listed yet 94.3% exploitation probability (EPSS)

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AnalysisAIv1 – Mar 25, 2026

Atlassian has been made aware of an issue reported by a handful of customers where external attackers may have exploited a previously unknown vulnerability in publicly accessible Confluence Data. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. Actively exploited in the wild (cisa kev) and public exploit code available.

Earlier versions of this analysis (1)
v1 Mar 25, 2026 - 15:22 CVSS 9.8

A critical vulnerability in Confluence Data Center and Server allows unauthenticated attackers to exploit improper input validation to create administrator accounts on publicly accessible instances, enabling full system compromise.

RemediationAI

No vendor patch is available at time of analysis. Monitor vendor advisories for updates. Apply vendor patches when available. Implement network segmentation and monitoring as interim mitigations.

Affects your stack

Find out whether the stacks and servers you run are on an affected version.

Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.

Technical ContextAI · show details

This vulnerability is classified under CWE-20. Atlassian has been made aware of an issue reported by a handful of customers where external attackers may have exploited a previously unknown vulnerability in publicly accessible Confluence Data Center and Server instances to create unauthorized Confluence administrator accounts and access Confluence instances. Atlassian Cloud sites are not affected by this vulnerability. If your Confluence site is accessed via an atlassian.net domain, it is hosted by Atlassian and is not vulnerable to this issue. Affected products include: Atlassian Confluence Data Center, Atlassian Confluence Server.

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  • Exploit and PoC references, threat intelligence from 22 sources

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Severity by source

NVD PRIMARY 9.8 CRITICAL
AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Primary rating from NVD · only source for this CVE.

CVSS VectorNVD

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

Lifecycle Timeline

4
Added to CISA KEV
Mar 25, 2026 - 17:40 cisa
CISA KEV
EUVD Exploitation Confirmed
Mar 25, 2026 - 17:40 euvd
EUVD KEV
PoC Detected
Mar 25, 2026 - 17:40 vuln.today
Public exploit code
CVE Published
Oct 04, 2023 - 14:15 nvd
CRITICAL 9.8

DescriptionCVE.org

Atlassian has been made aware of an issue reported by a handful of customers where external attackers may have exploited a previously unknown vulnerability in publicly accessible Confluence Data Center and Server instances to create unauthorized Confluence administrator accounts and access Confluence instances.

Atlassian Cloud sites are not affected by this vulnerability. If your Confluence site is accessed via an atlassian.net domain, it is hosted by Atlassian and is not vulnerable to this issue.

Executive ViewAI

Why It Matters

Organizations using Atlassian face critical risk from CVE-2023-22515, a input validation vulnerability rated CVSS 9.8. Successful exploitation could critically impact the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of affected systems. This vulnerability is actively exploited in the wild (KEV-listed) and requires immediate remediation. Immediate patching is required per CISA KEV mandate.

Business Impact: Severe
Compensating Controls

Apply vendor patch. If immediate patching is not feasible: (1) Implement network-level access controls to limit exposure; (2) Enable enhanced monitoring and alerting; (3) Apply principle of least privilege.

Threat Intelligence Overview

Threat Score
9.8/10
Composite threat intelligence
EPSS Score
94.3%
Top 0% exploitable
EUVD KEV
Listed
EU Exploited Vulnerability
Threat Intel
1
1 sources
Exploit
POC
Public exploit code exists
Data Quality
8 sources
Confidence: High

How this decision was reached

The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.

SignalValue
Severity CRITICAL
CISA KEV Yes
Public POC Yes
EPSS 94.3%
Patch available No
Active threat Yes
Deciding rule
CRITICAL + in CISA KEV (actively exploited), no patch available
What every action level means
Emergency Immediate action required. Criteria: CRITICAL + in CISA KEV (actively exploited) without patch, OR CRITICAL + EPSS > 30% without patch, OR CRITICAL + active threat signals without patch.
Act Now Prioritize within 24-48h. Criteria: in KEV with patch available, OR CRITICAL + public POC, OR HIGH + EPSS > 10%, OR CRITICAL + active threat, OR any CRITICAL severity.
This Week Schedule remediation this week. Criteria: HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9). Patch within normal change window.
This Month Plan within 30 days. Criteria: MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9), lower exploitation probability. Include in regular patch cycle.
Monitor Track and reassess. Criteria: LOW severity (CVSS 0.1-3.9), minimal exploitation risk. No immediate action needed.

SSVC AssessmentENISA

SSVC Decision· derived
Immediate
Exploitation· derived
Active
System Exposure· derived
Open
Automatable· derived
Yes
Human Impact
Very High

Priority Score

238
Low Medium High Critical
KEV: +50
EPSS: +94
CVSS: +49
PoC: +20
Weaponized: +15
Threat intel: +10
Gov advisory: 0

Attack Technique

Authentication bypass attacks exploit flaws in the verification mechanisms that control access to systems and applications.

Affected Products (CPE)CVE.org

cpe:2.3:a:atlassian:confluence_data_center:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:a:atlassian:confluence_data_center:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:a:atlassian:confluence_data_center:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:a:atlassian:confluence_server:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:a:atlassian:confluence_server:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:a:atlassian:confluence_server:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
CVE-2015-5603 MEDIUM POC
6.5 Sep 21

The HipChat for JIRA plugin before 6.30.0 for Atlassian JIRA allows remote authenticated users to execute arbitrary Java

CVE-2015-8399 MEDIUM POC
4.3 Apr 11

Atlassian Confluence before 5.8.17 allows remote authenticated users to read configuration files via the decoratorName p

CVE-2012-2926 CRITICAL POC
9.1 May 22

Atlassian JIRA before 5.0.1; Confluence before 3.5.16, 4.0 before 4.0.7, and 4.1 before 4.1.10; FishEye and Crucible bef

CVE-2014-2314 MEDIUM POC
4.3 Mar 09

Directory traversal vulnerability in the Issue Collector plugin in Atlassian JIRA before 6.0.4 allows remote attackers t

CVE-2023-22518 CRITICAL POC
9.8 Oct 31

All versions of Confluence Data Center and Server are affected by this unexploited vulnerability. Rated critical severit

CVE-2022-43781 CRITICAL POC
9.8 Nov 17

There is a command injection vulnerability using environment variables in Bitbucket Server and Data Center. Rated critic

CVE-2022-26134 CRITICAL POC
9.8 Jun 03

In affected versions of Confluence Server and Data Center, an OGNL injection vulnerability exists that would allow an un

CVE-2019-11580 CRITICAL POC
9.8 Jun 03

Atlassian Crowd and Crowd Data Center had the pdkinstall development plugin incorrectly enabled in release builds. Rated

CVE-2017-9506 MEDIUM POC
6.1 Aug 23

The IconUriServlet of the Atlassian OAuth Plugin from version 1.3.0 before version 1.9.12 and from version 2.0.0 before

CVE-2024-21683 HIGH POC
8.8 May 21

This High severity RCE (Remote Code Execution) vulnerability was introduced in version 5.2 of Confluence Data Center and

CVE-2022-36804 HIGH POC
8.8 Aug 25

Multiple API endpoints in Atlassian Bitbucket Server and Data Center 7.0.0 before version 7.6.17, from version 7.7.0 bef

CVE-2017-5983 CRITICAL POC
9.8 Apr 10

The JIRA Workflow Designer Plugin in Atlassian JIRA Server before 6.3.0 improperly uses an XML parser and deserializer,

Threat IntelligenceMISP

Threat Actors
Ukrainian Cyber Alliance
Sources: MISP Galaxies (CC0), Metasploit/Nuclei

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