CVE-2023-22515

CVE-2023-22515 is a critical Broken Access Control vulnerability discovered in October 2023, affecting the Confluence Data Center and Server. This flaw in software design or implementation allowed unauthenticated attackers to create unauthorized administrator accounts and gain access to Confluence instances. The vulnerability underscored persistent security issues and was exploited in the wild before being patched, highlighting its severity and potential for misuse. This zero-day vulnerability was exploited by various threat actors, including a China-sponsored advanced persistent threat (APT) group known as Storm-0062, prior to the release of a patch. In addition to CVE-2023-22515, cybersecurity company Rapid7 observed attacks targeting another vulnerability, CVE-2023-22518, an authentication bypass issue. These exploits against internet-exposed Atlassian Confluence servers emphasized the urgency for effective countermeasures. In response to these threats, several advisories were issued urging rapid patching of Atlassian Confluence servers. In particular, US agencies urged customers to patch this critical broken authentication & session management bug. Atlassian rolled out security fixes for this maximum-severity Remote Code Execution (RCE) bug, which had been exploited before patching. Check Point IPS also provided protection against this threat, further reinforcing the importance of timely updates and robust security measures.