Vulnerability report

Exploited in the wild Confirmed confidence In CISA KEV

CVE-2023-22518

Confluence Data Center

Atlassian / Confluence Data Center · affected before 1.0.0

Watch CVE-2023-22518 Browse KEV feed
Severity
CVSS 9.8 · Critical
Confidence
Confirmed
Exploit status
Exploited in the wild
EPSS
100.0%
First observed
—
Last observed
—

Decision summary

What security teams need to know first

Direct answers before the deeper technical record.

What it is

CVE-2023-22518 is an unauthenticated vulnerability affecting Atlassian Confluence Data Center, Confluence Server. All versions of Confluence Data Center and Server are affected by this unexploited vulnerability. This...

Is it exploited?

Yes. Previdian tracks this CVE as a known exploited vulnerability. Confidence is confirmed. Listed in CISA KEV. Also confirmed by third-party sources.

Who is affected?

Atlassian / Confluence Data Center affected before 1.0.0.

What should we do?

Prioritize remediation. Validate affected assets and apply vendor fixes on an accelerated timeline.

Overview

All versions of Confluence Data Center and Server are affected by this unexploited vulnerability

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.

Atlassian Unaffected
Confluence Data Center
Before 1.0.0 >= 7.19.16 >= 8.3.4 >= 8.4.4 >= 8.5.3 >= 8.6.1
Atlassian Affected
Confluence Data Center
>= 1.0.0
Atlassian Unaffected
Confluence Server
Before 1.0.0 >= 7.19.16 >= 8.3.4 >= 8.4.4 >= 8.5.3 >= 8.6.1
Atlassian Affected
Confluence Server
>= 1.0.0
Published
31 Oct 2023
Exploitation Reported
07 Nov 2023
Attack vector
Remote
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None

Tags

cisa malware metasploit nuclei_scanner dotnet ransomware

CVE References

Exploitation evidence

Why Previdian marks this CVE as exploited

Third-party attestation and first-party sensor observation are shown separately so teams can judge the evidence chain.

Exploited in the wild

CISA

Recorded 07 Nov 2023

A trusted third party reported exploitation.

Used in malware

CISA

Recorded 07 Nov 2023

Malware families have been linked to exploitation of this CVE.

Proof of concept available

GitHub

Recorded 31 Oct 2023

Public scanner or PoC coverage increases practical exploitability.

Known exploited vulnerability sources

Per-source evidence links for KEV attestations are available through the Previdian Pro API.

Learn about Pro API access
Source Added
CISA First 2023-11-07 00:00 UTC
The Shadowserver 2026-05-30 00:00 UTC
Tenable Blog 2026-06-02 14:20 UTC

Detection

Operational artifacts and observed signals

Make the evidence actionable in scanner, SOC, and edge-control workflows.

Observed signals

Request targets
User-Agents
Callback hosts
0
0
0

Request targets and User-Agents available in Pro. Callback host details available in Enterprise.

Virtual patch status

No Previdian virtual patch is currently available. Future rules ship for ModSecurity, Cloudflare, and AWS WAF.

Learn about virtual patches →

Scanner Artifacts

Scanner and exploit-framework references linked to this CVE.

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

Risk and context

Severity, weaknesses, and research context

CVSS v3.1

9.8 Critical

Potential damage if exploited. Separate from whether attackers are using it.

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

EPSS

100.0%

Estimated chance of exploitation in the next 30 days. Previdian's warning comes from evidence, not this score.

Weaknesses

Incorrect Authorization CWE-863

Recent mention · Tenable Blog

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

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...

Read full advisory

All 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

Potential Proof of Concepts

These PoCs are unverified and could contain malware. Use at your own risk.

Atlassian Confluence Server - Improper Authorization

nuclei · Created Unknown

atlassian_confluence_unauth_backup

metasploit · Created Unknown

Metasploit module for CVE-2023-22518

Timeline

From disclosure to observed exploitation

  1. 14:20 UTC

    KEV confirmed by Tenable Blog

    Exploitation attested by an external source

  2. 00:00 UTC

    KEV confirmed by The Shadowserver

    Exploitation attested by an external source

  3. 15:02 UTC

    Metasploit module available

    Exploit module available

  4. 15:02 UTC

    Public PoC available

    Public proof-of-concept code published

  5. 00:00 UTC

    Nuclei template available

    Scanner coverage available

  6. 00:00 UTC

    Added to CISA KEV

    Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

  7. 00:00 UTC

    First public exploitation report

    Exploit observed in malware

  8. 14:30 UTC

    CVE published

    Vulnerability disclosed publicly

  9. 00:01 UTC

    CVE ID reserved

    Identifier reserved by the CNA

Pro API

Automate this intelligence

Confidence, exploit status, sensor telemetry, PoCs, scanner integrations, mentions, and tags are available programmatically for VM, SOC, and CTI workflows.

Start 14-day Pro trial Read API docs
  • Evidence confidence and provenance
  • First-party sensor telemetry
  • PoC and scanner references
  • Affected versions and enrichment
  • Automation-ready JSON delivery

GET /api/v2/pro/kevs/CVE-2023-22518

Sample API response 
{
  "cve_id": "CVE-2023-22518",
  "confidence": "Confirmed",
  "cvss_score": 9.8,
  "cvss_estimated": false,
  "epss_score": 0.99999,
  "exploit_status": {
    "exploited_in_the_wild": true,
    "active_exploitation_observed": false
  },
  "sensor_telemetry": { "attempts": 0, "sensors": 0 }
}