Atlassian Urges Immediate Patching of Critical Confluence Vulnerability

• A new critical vulnerability in Atlassian’s Confluence server app is under active exploitation by malicious actors, potentially putting users at risk of ransomware attacks.
• The flaw, CVE-2023-22518, is an improper authorization vulnerability often exploited by sending specific requests to set up or restore endpoints.

Atlassian has urged Confluence users to patch a high-severity vulnerability as soon as possible that is actively being exploited by malicious actors in the wild. The vulnerability known as the CVE-2023-22518 authentication bypass vulnerability creates a significant risk of data loss, according to Bala Sathiamurthy, the CISO at the company.

According to Atlassian, the vulnerability makes it possible for threat actors to use data wiping and ransomware attacks and affects all versions of the Confluence. Companies that cannot immediately apply the patches have been recommended to restart vulnerable instances and set restrictions on access to critical endpoints.

The flaw, which has now been patched, has a 9.1 severity score and was warned about by Atlassian owing to critical information about the vulnerability being made public, which significantly elevated the risk of exploitation. The warning provided technical information and details about potential methods of exploitation.

See More: Microsoft Windows Drivers Found To Be Susceptible to Device Takeovers

According to researchers from GreyNoise, the cybersecurity firm, the vulnerability was already exploited against organizations in the U.S., Moldova, Ukraine, Taiwan, Latvia, and Georgia. While the vulnerability does not allow extraction of data, it does allow attackers to insert their own data in servers without the need for authentication.

This is not the first major vulnerability that has affected Confluence users in recent times. It comes just weeks after the high-severity Confluence privilege escalation bug, known as CVE-2023-22515, was discovered in October 2023, which prompted remediation warnings by federal agencies in the U.S.

Is your organization affected by Atlassian Confluence vulnerabilities? Let us know your thoughts on LinkedInOpens a new window , XOpens a new window , or FacebookOpens a new window . We’d love to hear from you!

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