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Actively exploited in the wild. This CVE is on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities list — treat remediation as urgent. Federal remediation due by 3 May 2022. Known ransomware use
CrowdApplication · Atlassian

CVE-2019-11580

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2019-06-03
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 3.0.5 / 3.1.6 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
In the wild Ransomware High EPSS Public exploit Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

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 · unedited
Atlassian Crowd and Crowd Data Center had the pdkinstall development plugin incorrectly enabled in release builds. Attackers who can send unauthenticated or authenticated requests to a Crowd or Crowd Data Center instance can exploit this vulnerability to install arbitrary plugins, which permits remote code execution on systems running a vulnerable version of Crowd or Crowd Data Center. All versions of Crowd from version 2.1.0 before 3.0.5 (the fixed version for 3.0.x), from version 3.1.0 before 3.1.6 (the fixed version for 3.1.x), from version 3.2.0 before 3.2.8 (the fixed version for 3.2.x), from version 3.3.0 before 3.3.5 (the fixed version for 3.3.x), and from version 3.4.0 before 3.4.4 (the fixed version for 3.4.x) are affected by this 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 confidence

Atlassian Crowd and Crowd Data Center had the pdkinstall development plugin incorrectly enabled in release builds. This allows unauthenticated or authenticated attackers to install arbitrary plugins, leading to remote code execution on affected systems.

MitigationUpgrade to the fixed versions (3.0.5, 3.1.6, 3.2.8, 3.3.5, 3.4.4 or later). If immediate upgrading is not possible, disable the pdkinstall plugin as a temporary mitigation.

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
Affected:>= 2.1.0, < 3.0.5>= 3.1.0, < 3.1.6>= 3.2.0, < 3.2.8>= 3.3.0, < 3.3.5>= 3.4.0, < 3.4.4

CVSS 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
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify installed Crowd version
    Check the Crowd application version through the administration console (Crowd > Administration > General configuration) or by inspecting the CROWD_HOME/../crowd-webapp/WEB-INF/lib/atlassianCrowd*.jar file name which contains the version, or run: java -jar crowd-webapp/WEB-INF/lib/atlassianCrowd*.jar --version
    Affected if the installed version falls within any of these ranges: 2.1.0 to 3.0.4, 3.1.0 to 3.1.5, 3.2.0 to 3.2.7, 3.3.0 to 3.3.4, or 3.4.0 to 3.4.3
  2. Locate the pdkinstall plugin
    Check if the pdkinstall plugin exists in the Crowd plugins directory (CROWD_HOME/plugins/pdk or CROWD_INSTALL/atlassian-bundled-plugins/pdkinstall-plugin.jar) or list bundled plugins via the Crowd REST API endpoint: /rest/plugin/1.0/
    Affected if the pdkinstall plugin is present and enabled on the system
  3. Verify plugin installation endpoint accessibility
    Test whether the plugin installation endpoint is reachable by sending a GET request to /rest/pdkinstall/1.0/ or /admin/pdkinstall/ on the Crowd server. This does not require authentication in vulnerable versions.
    Affected if the endpoint responds (returns HTTP 200 or 401/403 rather than 404) indicating the pdkinstall REST API is available
  4. Check Crowd console authentication configuration
    Navigate to Crowd Administration > Global Settings > Authentication and verify whether anonymous access is enabled, or inspect the crowd.properties configuration file for crowd.jwt.enabled settings
    Affected if anonymous access is enabled or the JWT authentication is misconfigured, allowing unauthenticated exploitation

A user is affected if their Crowd version is within the vulnerable ranges AND the pdkinstall plugin is present, regardless of whether anonymous access is enabled (since authenticated users can also exploit this).

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 3.0.5 / 3.1.6 / 3.2.8 or later
Fixed in 3.0.53.1.63.2.8
Interim mitigation

Upgrade to the fixed versions (3.0.5, 3.1.6, 3.2.8, 3.3.5, 3.4.4 or later). If immediate upgrading is not possible, disable the pdkinstall plugin as a temporary mitigation.

Recommended fix High confidence

3.0.5, 3.1.6, 3.2.8, 3.3.5, or 3.4.4 depending on your current branch (upgrade to the lowest fixed version in your branch)

  1. Backup your Crowd instance and database before upgrading
  2. Review Atlassian's upgrade documentation for your current version to ensure compatibility
  3. Determine your current version and plan upgrade path to the appropriate fixed version
  4. For versions 2.1.0 to 3.0.x: upgrade to version 3.0.5
  5. For versions 3.1.0 to 3.1.x: upgrade to version 3.1.6
  6. For versions 3.2.0 to 3.2.x: upgrade to version 3.2.8
  7. For versions 3.3.0 to 3.3.x: upgrade to version 3.3.5
  8. For versions 3.4.0 to 3.4.x: upgrade to version 3.4.4
Caveat Standard Atlassian upgrade precautions apply: back up data, review breaking changes in release notes, test in staging environment before production deployment

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Crowd Exploited in the wild — priority engagement
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing8.0 h
  • Review / QA3.0 h
18.0 hours of engineering $3,060
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2019-11580 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • 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
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data