Security Resilience

CVE-2024-21683

RCE in Atlassian Confluence Data Center 7.19.0 – 7.19.24

High EPSSRCE
Published
21 May 2024
Modified
12 May 2025
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 8.8
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.88 99.8th percentile
Risk Priority 90 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-2024-21683 is a high-severity Code Injection (CWE-94) vulnerability in Atlassian Confluence Data Center. Its CVSS base score is 8.8 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Junk Data (T1001.001); ranked in the top 0.2% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and 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.

CVE-2024-21683 is a high-severity remote code execution vulnerability in Atlassian Confluence Data Center and Server, introduced in version 5.2. It carries a CVSS 3.1 score of 8.8 and stems from improper control of code generation (CWE-94), enabling an authenticated attacker to run arbitrary code on the affected instance.

An authenticated attacker with network access can exploit the flaw without user interaction to achieve full remote code execution, resulting in high impact to confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the Confluence instance.

Atlassian advises customers to upgrade Confluence Data Center and Server to the latest version or one of the supported fixed releases listed in the release notes; downloads are available from the vendor’s archive site. The vulnerability was discovered internally and has not been linked to external reports of active exploitation.

The associated EPSS score stands at 0.9405.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

This High severity RCE (Remote Code Execution) vulnerability was introduced in version 5.2 of Confluence Data Center and Server. This RCE (Remote Code Execution) vulnerability, with a CVSS Score of 7.2, allows an authenticated attacker to execute arbitrary code which…

more

has high impact to confidentiality, high impact to integrity, high impact to availability, and requires no user interaction. Atlassian recommends that Confluence Data Center and Server customers upgrade to latest version. If you are unable to do so, upgrade your instance to one of the specified supported fixed versions. See the release notes https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/confluence-release-notes-327.html You can download the latest version of Confluence Data Center and Server from the download center https://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence/download-archives. This vulnerability was found internally.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1001.001 Junk Data Command And Control
Adversaries may add junk data to protocols used for command and control to make detection more difficult.
T1001.003 Protocol or Service Impersonation Command And Control
Adversaries may impersonate legitimate protocols or web service traffic to disguise command and control activity and thwart analysis efforts.
T1003.006 DCSync Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to access credentials and other sensitive information by abusing a Windows Domain Controller's application programming interface (API)(Citation: Microsoft DRSR Dec 2017) (Citation: Microsoft GetNCCChanges) (Citati…
T1003.007 Proc Filesystem Credential Access
Adversaries may gather credentials from the proc filesystem or `/proc`.
T1003.008 /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to dump the contents of <code>/etc/passwd</code> and <code>/etc/shadow</code> to enable offline password cracking.
T1007 System Service Discovery Discovery
Adversaries may try to gather information about registered local system services.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2023-22526Same product: Atlassian Confluence Data Center
CVE-2024-21672Same product: Atlassian Confluence Data Center
CVE-2024-21673Same product: Atlassian Confluence Data Center
CVE-2024-21674Same product: Atlassian Confluence Data Center
CVE-2023-22506Same vendor: Atlassian
CVE-2026-21575Same vendor: Atlassian
CVE-2023-22513Same vendor: Atlassian
CVE-2024-21682Same vendor: Atlassian
CVE-2026-21570Same vendor: Atlassian
CVE-2023-22514Same vendor: Atlassian

Affected Assets

atlassian
confluence data center
8.7.1, 8.7.2, 8.8.0, 8.8.1 · 7.19.0 — 7.19.24 · 7.20.0 — 7.20.3 · 8.0.0 — 8.0.4
atlassian
confluence server
8.7.1, 8.7.2, 8.8.0, 8.8.1 · 7.19.0 — 7.19.24 · 7.20.0 — 7.20.3 · 8.0.0 — 8.0.4
atlassian
fisheye
4.8.0 — 4.8.15
atlassian
crucible
4.8.0 — 4.8.15
atlassian
jira data center
9.4.0 — 9.4.21 · 9.12.0 — 9.12.8
atlassian
jira server
9.4.0 — 9.4.21 · 9.12.0 — 9.12.8
atlassian
jira service management
5.15.2 · 5.4.0 — 5.4.21 · 5.12.0 — 5.12.8 · 5.15.2 — 5.16.0

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

—

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

—

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

—

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V1.3.1

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

Developer testing and evaluation finds code paths that accept and execute externally influenced strings.

Input validation directly stops untrusted data from being used to construct executable code without neutralization.

Least privilege limits the damage an injected code fragment can perform once executed.

Requiring documented secure development standards and tools enforces use of safe code-generation APIs and escaping.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

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

PR.PS-06 mostly match
blocks

PR.PS-06's SDLC practices directly target injection flaws via secure coding and testing (mostly), yet as a single broad outcome it leaves many code-generation specifics unaddressed (partial).

PR.DS-10 none match
blocks

PR.DS-10 protects runtime data confidentiality/integrity but has no bearing on neutralizing externally influenced input during code generation, so neither direction shows any preventive effect.

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.

removes
removes
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References