Security Resilience

CVE-2023-22515

Atlassian Confluence Data Center 8.0.0 – 8.3.3

CISA KEVActive ExploitationEUVD ExploitedPublic PoCRansomware-linked
Published
04 October 2023
Modified
25 March 2026
KEV Added
05 October 2023
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 9.8
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.99 99.9th percentile
Risk Priority 97 floored blend · peak EPSS

CVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.

Summary

CVE-2023-22515 is a critical-severity Improper Input Validation (CWE-20) vulnerability in Atlassian Confluence Data Center. Its CVSS base score is 9.8 (Critical).

Operationally, ranked in the top 0.1% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; CISA has added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.

Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary

Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.

CVE-2023-22515 is a critical unauthenticated vulnerability affecting publicly accessible Atlassian Confluence Data Center and Server instances. It enables external attackers to create unauthorized administrator accounts and subsequently access the Confluence instance. Atlassian Cloud sites hosted under atlassian.net domains are not impacted. The flaw carries a CVSS 3.1 score of 9.8 and is associated with improper input validation weaknesses.

External attackers with no prior credentials can target internet-facing Confluence Server or Data Center deployments to provision admin accounts and achieve full control over the instance, including the ability to execute arbitrary code.

Public exploit code for unauthenticated remote code execution has been posted to Packet Storm, and Atlassian has published mitigation guidance and a dedicated knowledge-base article at confluence.atlassian.com along with a Jira tracking entry. The EPSS score has reached a peak of 0.9739 with a current value of 0.9433, indicating sustained and widespread exploitation interest following disclosure.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

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…

more

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.

CWE(s)
KEV Date Added
05 October 2023

Related Threats

Threat-Actor AttributionAI

Amazon.com (Walmart logistics engineer recruitment civil claims)
Threat Actors Exploit Atlassian Confluence CVE-2023-22515 for Initial Access to Networks | CISA
Microsoft Corp. (Salesforce / Slack engineer recruitment claims)
Threat Actors Exploit Atlassian Confluence CVE-2023-22515 for Initial Access to Networks | CISA
Inception (G0100)
Threat Actors Exploit Atlassian Confluence CVE-2023-22515 for Initial Access to Networks | CISA
AnonOps
Threat Actors Exploit Atlassian Confluence CVE-2023-22515 for Initial Access to Networks | CISA
RansomHub
#StopRansomware: RansomHub Ransomware | CISA
Apple Inc. (Masimo pulse-oximetry trade-secret 2020-2024)
2023 Top Routinely Exploited Vulnerabilities | CISA
Clop
2023 Top Routinely Exploited Vulnerabilities | CISA

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2023-22527Same product: Atlassian Confluence Data Centerboth on KEV
CVE-2021-26085Same product: Atlassian Confluence Data Centerboth on KEV
CVE-2023-22518Same product: Atlassian Confluence Data Centerboth on KEV
CVE-2021-26084Same product: Atlassian Confluence Data Centerboth on KEV
CVE-2022-26134Same product: Atlassian Confluence Data Centerboth on KEV
CVE-2022-26138Same product: Atlassian Confluence Data Centerboth on KEV
CVE-2025-22166Same product: Atlassian Confluence Data Center
CVE-2024-21686Same product: Atlassian Confluence Data Center
CVE-2019-3396Same product: Atlassian Confluence Serverboth on KEV
CVE-2024-21677Same product: Atlassian Confluence Data Center

Affected Assets

atlassian
confluence data center
8.0.0 — 8.3.3 · 8.4.0 — 8.4.3 · 8.5.0 — 8.5.2
atlassian
confluence server
8.0.0 — 8.3.3 · 8.4.0 — 8.4.3 · 8.5.0 — 8.5.2

Mitigating Controls

Likely Mitigating Controls AI

Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.

addresses: CWE-20

Security testing and developer training directly verify and enforce proper input validation, reducing exploitability of injection and malformed-data weaknesses.

addresses: CWE-20

Security testing and evaluation at multiple SDLC stages directly detects missing or flawed input validation, with the required remediation process ensuring fixes are applied.

addresses: CWE-20

Directly implements checks on information inputs to reject invalid data before processing.

addresses: CWE-20

Spam protection mechanisms perform filtering and detection on inbound/outbound messages, directly compensating for missing or weak input validation of unsolicited content.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

blocks

A.8.25 mandates security requirements, secure coding guidelines, checkpoints, testing (incl. code scans) and developer training in the SDLC, which reaches a slice of input validation defects but leaves the majority (incomplete enforcement, second-order inputs, parser differentials, post-validation canonicalization) unaddressed as in the SA-3 and A.8.28 anchors.

blocks

Mandating input controls that include integrity checks and input validation ensures that untrusted data is examined before use, blocking the root cause of many injection and malformed-data weaknesses.

blocks

Security-by-design principles explicitly call for data validation and sanitization at every layer, reducing the chance that malformed or malicious input will be processed without scrutiny.

prevents

Requiring language-specific secure coding standards, peer review, SAST and documented mitigation of common programming errors forces validation of all inputs before they are trusted.

finds

Testing against a defined set of requirements and using code review plus vulnerability scanning forces validation of inputs and handling of unanticipated conditions, reducing the chance that malformed data will be accepted.

Hardening callouts derived

DISA STIG baselines are authored against specific weaknesses. Where this CVE cites a broad weakness class, the mapping is not asserted at that abstraction (owner ruling, 2026-09-25: grade only at Base and below), so no rule is shown here rather than a rule shown against the wrong grain.

  • No fine-grained STIG row for CWE-20, a class-level weakness, and none of its children carries one either.

References