CrowdApplication · Atlassian
CVE-2018-20238
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 · uneditedVarious rest resources in Atlassian Crowd before version 3.2.7 and from version 3.3.0 before version 3.3.4 allow remote attackers to authenticate using an expired user session via an insufficient session expiration vulnerability.
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 confidenceAtlassian Crowd versions before 3.2.7 and from 3.3.0 before 3.3.4 contain an insufficient session expiration vulnerability in various REST resources. Remote attackers can authenticate using expired user sessions, allowing unauthorized access after legitimate sessions should have terminated.
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
CrowdApplication
< 3.2.7>= 3.3.0, < 3.3.4CVSS 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
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
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 installed Atlassian Crowd versionCheck the Crowd application version through the admin console (Crowd > Administration > General > Application Info) or by inspecting the crowd-war/WEB-INF/lib folder for the crowd-core jar file which contains the version, or run: java -jar crowd-upgrade-tool.jar --version if availableAffected if The installed version is less than 3.2.7, or greater than or equal to 3.3.0 but less than 3.3.4
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Confirm REST authentication is enabledReview the Crowd configuration to verify that REST API access is enabled for user directories or directory-backed applications. Check the crowd.properties file or the REST application settings in the admin console under Applications > Application > OptionsAffected if REST API access is enabled and exposed to the network for any directory or application
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Verify session configurationExamine the Crowd session configuration settings in the admin console under Security > Sessions, or inspect the web.xml file in crowd-war/WEB-INF for session-timeout definitions. Note the session timeout values configuredAffected if Session timeouts are configured but the REST endpoints do not enforce proper session invalidation on the application layer (this is a configuration behavior that cannot be directly observed without access to source code or testing with expired session tokens)
You are affected if your installed Atlassian Crowd version falls within < 3.2.7 or >= 3.3.0 to < 3.3.4 AND REST API endpoints are accessible for authentication.
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 data3.2.73.3.4
Upgrade Atlassian Crowd to version 3.2.7, 3.3.4, or later. Review and implement proper session invalidation mechanisms on the application layer.
Fix this in Crowd
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,088.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-20238 — 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-2018-20238 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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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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