dbcve.org
Confluence Data CenterApplication · Atlassian

CVE-2023-22522

HIGH · 8.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2023-12-06
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 7.19.17 / 8.4.5 or later.
See remediation →
94/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable 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
This Template Injection vulnerability allows an authenticated attacker, including one with anonymous access, to inject unsafe user input into a Confluence page. Using this approach, an attacker is able to achieve Remote Code Execution (RCE) on an affected instance. Publicly accessible Confluence Data Center and Server versions as listed below are at risk and require immediate attention. See the advisory for additional details Atlassian Cloud sites are not affected by this vulnerability. If your Confluence site is accessed via an atlassian.net domain, it is hosted by Atlassian and is not vulnerable to this issue.

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 · moderate confidence

Template injection vulnerability in Confluence Data Center and Server allows authenticated attackers (including anonymous users) to inject unsafe input into Confluence pages, leading to remote code execution on affected instances.

MitigationApply the vendor-supplied patch immediately for Confluence Data Center/Server; disable anonymous access if not required; restrict network exposure of vulnerable Confluence instances until patched.

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
Confluence Data CenterApplication
Affected:>= 4.0, < 7.19.17>= 8.0.0, < 8.4.5>= 8.5.0, < 8.5.4>= 8.6.0, < 8.6.2= 8.7.0
Confluence ServerApplication
Affected:>= 4.0, < 7.19.17>= 8.0.0, < 8.4.5>= 8.5.0, < 8.5.4

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

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/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 Confluence version
    Access the Confluence administration console or check the about page (typically at /about.do) to determine the exact installed version number
    Affected if The installed version falls within any of these ranges: 4.0 to 7.19.16, 8.0.0 to 8.4.4, 8.5.0 to 8.5.3, 8.6.0 to 8.6.1, or equals 8.7.0
  2. Verify anonymous access status
    In Confluence admin settings, navigate to Security Configuration > Anonymous Access and check whether anonymous/unauthenticated access is enabled
    Affected if Anonymous access is enabled on the Confluence instance
  3. Confirm network accessibility
    Determine if the Confluence web interface is accessible from untrusted networks by checking firewall rules, reverse proxy configurations, or external-facing IP addresses
    Affected if Confluence is directly accessible from the internet or untrusted networks without proper network segmentation
  4. Check for suspicious activity logs
    Review Confluence access logs and audit logs for unusual POST requests to /pages/doeditpage.action or similar endpoints with unexpected template syntax or OGNL expressions
    Affected if Logs show evidence of template injection attempts or unauthorized page modifications

You are affected if your Confluence version is within the vulnerable ranges AND anonymous access or network exposure exists, making remote exploitation possible.

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 7.19.17 / 8.4.5 / 8.5.4 or later
Fixed in 7.19.178.4.58.5.4
Interim mitigation

Apply the vendor-supplied patch immediately for Confluence Data Center/Server; disable anonymous access if not required; restrict network exposure of vulnerable Confluence instances until patched.

Recommended fix High confidence

Confluence 7.19.17+ / 8.4.5+ / 8.5.4+ / 8.6.2+ (choose the appropriate branch based on current version)

  1. 1. Identify the currently installed Confluence Data Center or Server version from the administration console
  2. 2. For Confluence 7.x versions (>= 4.0, < 7.19.17): Plan upgrade to version 7.19.17 or later
  3. 3. For Confluence 8.0.x - 8.4.x versions: Plan upgrade to version 8.4.5 or later
  4. 4. For Confluence 8.5.x versions: Plan upgrade to version 8.5.4 or later
  5. 5. For Confluence 8.6.x versions: Plan upgrade to version 8.6.2 or later
  6. 6. Review Atlassian upgrade documentation for your specific version path
  7. 7. Perform a full backup of the Confluence instance before upgrading
  8. 8. Test the upgrade in a staging environment before deploying to production
Caveat Review Atlassian upgrade notes for potential compatibility issues with add-ons, migrations between major versions, and ensure system requirements are met

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

Fix this in Confluence Data Center Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation6.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
24.0 hours of engineering $4,260
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $6,816.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-22522 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

Get it on GitHub Scan in the browser

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-2023-22522 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.

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