Administrator takeover via unauthenticated setup-state mutation
Published Oct 4, 2023 · Updated Mar 25, 2026
Broken access control in Atlassian Confluence Data Center and Server 8.0.0 through 8.5.1 allows remote attackers to gain administrator access. An unauthenticated request to /server-info.action changes the setup-complete configuration flag, reopening /setup/setupadministrator.action for account creation. A network-reachable self-managed instance is sufficient; a created administrator can read Confluence content and credentials and install plugins.
Summary
What happened
Broken access control in Atlassian Confluence Data Center and Server 8.0.0 through 8.5.1 allows remote attackers to gain administrator access. An unauthenticated request to /server-info.action changes the setup-complete configuration flag, reopening /setup/setupadministrator.action for account creation. A network-reachable self-managed instance is sufficient; a created administrator can read Confluence content and credentials and install plugins.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2023-22515
- Published
- Oct 4, 2023
- Updated
- Mar 25, 2026
- Vendor
- Atlassian
- Product
- Confluence Data Center
- Classifications
- CWE-20, T1136.001, T1190
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Sep 14, 2023Exploitation reportedStorm-0062 exploitation campaign
- Oct 4, 2023CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Oct 5, 2023Exploitation reportedCISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog entry
- Mar 25, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
Compare your product and version with the public record. A matching version still requires validation against your environment.
Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=>= 8.0.0
- Affected versionversion=>= 8.0.1
- Affected versionversion=>= 8.0.2
- Affected versionversion=>= 8.0.3
- Affected versionversion=>= 8.1.3
- Affected versionversion=>= 8.1.4
- Affected versionversion=>= 8.2.0
- Affected versionversion=>= 8.2.1
- Affected versionversion=>= 8.2.2
- Affected versionversion=>= 8.2.3
- Affected versionversion=>= 8.3.0
- Affected versionversion=>= 8.3.1
- Affected versionversion=>= 8.3.2
- Affected versionversion=>= 8.4.0
- Affected versionversion=>= 8.4.1
- Affected versionversion=>= 8.4.2
- Affected versionversion=>= 8.5.0
- Affected versionversion=>= 8.5.1
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
View daily counts
| Reporting day | Unique IPs |
|---|---|
| Sep 10, 2026 | 6 |
| Sep 11, 2026 | 8 |
| Sep 12, 2026 | 10 |
| Sep 13, 2026 | 5 |
| Sep 14, 2026 | 4 |
| Sep 15, 2026 | Unavailable |
| Sep 16, 2026 | 3 |
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
- Chocapikk automated Confluence exploitproof of concept · unverified
- DataDog Confluence administrator-creation proof of conceptfunctional · demonstrated
Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.
Reported exploitation
- Storm-0062 exploitation campaignthreat actor
- CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog entryknown exploited catalog
- Ransomware campaign use recorded by CISAransomware
Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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