CVE-2023-22527
Atlassian Confluence Data Center 8.0.0 – 8.5.4
Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HCVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.
Summary
CVE-2023-22527 is a critical-severity Injection (CWE-74) vulnerability in Atlassian Confluence Data Center. Its CVSS base score is 9.8 (Critical).
Operationally, ranked in the top 0.0% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; CISA has added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SI-10 (Information Input Validation) — see the control section below for these in your framework.
Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary
Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.
A template injection vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2023-22527 and assigned CWE-74, affects older versions of Atlassian Confluence Data Center and Server. The flaw permits remote code execution and received a CVSS 3.1 base score of 9.8, reflecting network-accessible attack vectors that require no authentication or user interaction.
An unauthenticated attacker can supply malicious template input over the network to achieve full remote code execution on an unpatched instance, resulting in complete compromise of confidentiality, integrity, and availability.
Atlassian states that the vulnerability was addressed through regular version updates, leaving current supported releases unaffected. The vendor’s January security bulletin directs customers to install the latest Confluence Data Center or Server release to protect against this issue and other non-critical vulnerabilities.
Public exploit code has been posted to PacketStorm, and the EPSS score stands at 0.9435 with a recorded peak of 0.9746, indicating sustained exploitation interest after disclosure.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2023-26667
Vulnerability Data
A template injection vulnerability on older versions of Confluence Data Center and Server allows an unauthenticated attacker to achieve RCE on an affected instance. Customers using an affected version must take immediate action. Most recent supported versions of Confluence Data…
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Center and Server are not affected by this vulnerability as it was ultimately mitigated during regular version updates. However, Atlassian recommends that customers take care to install the latest version to protect their instances from non-critical vulnerabilities outlined in Atlassian’s January Security Bulletin.
- CWE(s)
- KEV Date Added
- 24 January 2024
Related Threats
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
SI-10 directly requires validation of information inputs to reject malformed or special-element content before it reaches downstream parsers.
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.
Logging supports detection of injection attempts but does not prevent the weakness.
Monitoring activities can identify active injection attacks after they occur.
A.8.25 mandates a secure SDLC process that includes secure coding guidelines, security requirements, checkpoints, testing (scans/penetration), and developer training to reduce injection flaws, but does not itself enforce or guarantee neutralization of special elements at runtime.
Application security requirements explicitly call for controls against injection attacks in software design.
A.8.27 mandates security-by-design principles (including distrust external input, data validation/sanitization, secure architecture layers, and design reviews against attack patterns) that reach injection when applied to output construction; this stops exploitation for a minority slice (e.g. where principles drive sanitization) but leaves most code-level injection defects untouched without further implementation rigor.
Secure coding standards require proper neutralization of special elements, directly addressing CWE-74.
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-74, a class-level weakness, and none of its children carries one either.