CVE-2023-22518

9.8

CVSS
Critical

PUBLISHED

All versions of Confluence Data Center and Server are affected by this unexploited vulnerability. This Improper Authorization vulnerability allows...

Exploited in the wild Used in malware Remote Low complexity No user interaction

Vendor: Atlassian
Product: Confluence Data Center, Confluence Server
Published: Oct 31, 2023
EPSS: 94.4% · 100% pctl

Description

All versions of Confluence Data Center and Server are affected by this unexploited vulnerability. This Improper Authorization vulnerability allows an unauthenticated attacker to reset Confluence and create a Confluence instance administrator account. Using this account, an attacker can then perform all administrative actions that are available to Confluence instance administrator leading to - but not limited to - full loss of confidentiality, integrity and availability. 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.

dotnet cisa malware ransomware nuclei_scanner metasploit

CVSS scores

CVSS v3.1 9.8 Critical

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

CVSS v3.0 10.0 Critical

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

Exploitation status

Exploited in the wild

Recorded 2023-11-07 00:00:00 UTC · Source

Used in malware

Recorded 2023-11-07 00:00:00 UTC · Source

SSVC decision points

Exploitation: active
Automatable: Yes
Technical impact: partial

References

Known exploited vulnerability sources

Catalogues that list this CVE as a known exploited vulnerability.

Source	Added
CISA	Nov 07, 2023
Tenable Blog	Jun 02, 2026

Scanner integrations

Scanner	Reference	Detected
Metasploit	https://github.com/rapid7/metasploit-framework/blob/master/modules/exploits/multi/http/atlassian_confluence_unauth_backup.rb	Apr 28, 2025
Nuclei	https://github.com/projectdiscovery/nuclei-templates/blob/main/http/cves/2023/CVE-2023-22518.yaml	Apr 25, 2025

Recent mentions

Inside the customer environment: Where threat actors, vulnerabilities, and exposed assets intersect

Tenable Blog · May 27, 2026

Tenable Research has developed a graph-based model linking 600+ threat groups to real-world customer exposures. It reveals which vulnerabilities sit at the intersection of severity, active exploitation, and organizational risk.Key takeawaysThe "patch everything" strategy is dead: Vulnerability prioritization based on exploitation risk offers a path forward. A directed graph model linking 600+ threat actors to vulnerabilities in 7,800 customer environments reveals that 68% of organizations carry at least one CVE previously exploited by a named adversary, and 321 tracked threat groups can reach at least one customer environment through an active vulnerability. Prevalence of "Elite Arsenal" CVEs requires immediate attention: The 242 "Elite Arsenal" CVEs — those meeting all three criteria of critical VPR (≥ 9), CISA KEV listing, and documented threat group exploitation — are nearly universally present across the studied customer base, with 241 of 242 actively detected. More than half are five or more years old, and 78% of the persistently exploited core are simultaneously weaponized by nation-state APTs, commodity malware operators, and ransomware gangs. Non-CVE exposures are universally dangerous: Non-CVE exposures, including misconfigurations, weak credentials, and end-of-life software, are present in virtually 100% of studied organizations, with 60% carrying at least one that maps to a tracked threat actor's preferred techniques. Preliminary modeling suggests these exposures may confer more breach risk than CVE-linked findings, yet no industry-standard scoring infrastructure exists to prioritize them.While the first two posts in this blog series documented the accelerating vulnerability flood and the widening remediation gap, today we answer the outstanding question: Where do these forces actually collide inside customer environments? Using a directed graph model that maps more than 600 tracked threat groups to vulnerabilities observed across 7,800 organizations,...