Universal Plugin ManagerPlugin / extension · Atlassian
CVE-2018-20233
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedThe Upload add-on resource in Atlassian Universal Plugin Manager before version 2.22.14 allows remote attackers who have system administrator privileges to read files, make network requests and perform a denial of service attack via an XML External Entity vulnerability in the parsing of atlassian plugin xml files in an uploaded JAR.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidenceThis is an XML External Entity (XXE) vulnerability in Atlassian Universal Plugin Manager's plugin upload functionality. Attackers with system administrator privileges can upload malicious JAR files containing crafted atlassian-plugin.xml with XXE payloads, allowing them to read arbitrary files from the server, make internal network requests (SSRF), and cause denial of service.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data
Universal Plugin ManagerPlugin / extension
< 2.22.14CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- High
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:H
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify Atlassian Universal Plugin Manager versionCheck the Universal Plugin Manager version in your Atlassian application (Jira, Confluence, Bitbucket, etc.) by navigating to the admin console and looking for 'Universal Plugin Manager' in the 'Add-ons' or 'Apps' section. The version is typically displayed on the UPM manage page.Affected if The installed version is lower than 2.22.14 (e.g., 2.21.x, 2.20.x, etc.)
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Confirm plugin upload feature is accessibleNavigate to the Universal Plugin Manager 'Upload plugin' functionality in the admin console. This is typically found under 'Add-ons' > 'Upload plugin' or similar. Verify the feature exists and is accessible to administrator accounts.Affected if The plugin upload functionality is available and accessible to users with system administrator privileges
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Check for recent plugin uploadsReview the UPM logs for recent plugin upload events. Logs are typically found in the application logs directory (e.g., atlassian-confluence.log, atlassian-jira.log) or within the UPM manage plugins page showing recently uploaded plugins.Affected if Any custom or third-party JAR plugins have been uploaded recently, especially from untrusted sources
You are affected if your Atlassian Universal Plugin Manager version is below 2.22.14 AND the plugin upload feature is accessible to administrator accounts, as the XXE vulnerability can be exploited during plugin upload.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor data2.22.14
Upgrade Atlassian Universal Plugin Manager to version 2.22.14 or later, which includes proper XML parser configuration to disable external entity processing. If upgrading is not immediately feasible, disable the plugin upload feature for non-admin users as a compensating control.
Fix this in Universal Plugin Manager
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA4.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $6,176.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-20233 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2018-20233 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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