Confluence CVE-2023-22515 Trigger Vulnerability

name: Confluence CVE-2023-22515 Trigger Vulnerability
id: 630ea8b2-2800-4f5d-9cbc-d65c567349b0
version: 8
date: '2026-03-10'
author: Michael Haag, Splunk
status: production
type: TTP
data_source:
    - Suricata
description: The following analytic identifies potential exploitation attempts of the Confluence CVE-2023-22515 vulnerability. It detects successful accesses (HTTP status 200) to specific vulnerable endpoints by analyzing web logs within the Splunk 'Web' Data Model. This activity is significant for a SOC as it indicates possible privilege escalation attempts in Confluence. If confirmed malicious, attackers could gain unauthorized access or create accounts with escalated privileges, leading to potential data breaches or further exploitation within the environment.
search: |-
    | tstats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime FROM datamodel=Web
      WHERE Web.url IN ("*/server-info.action?bootstrapStatusProvider.applicationConfig.setupComplete=false*","*/server-info.action?bootstrapStatusProvider.applicationConfig.setupComplete=0&*") Web.http_method=GET Web.status=200
      BY Web.http_user_agent, Web.status Web.http_method,
         Web.url, Web.url_length, Web.src,
         Web.dest, sourcetype
    | `drop_dm_object_name("Web")`
    | `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
    | `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
    | `confluence_cve_2023_22515_trigger_vulnerability_filter`
how_to_implement: To successfully implement this search you need to be ingesting information on Web traffic that include fields relavent for traffic into the `Web` datamodel. Tested with Suricata and nginx:plus:kv.
known_false_positives: False positives may be present with legitimate applications. Attempt to filter by dest IP or use Asset groups to restrict to Confluence servers.
references:
    - https://github.com/Chocapikk/CVE-2023-22515/blob/main/exploit.py
    - https://x.com/Shadowserver/status/1712378833536741430?s=20
    - https://github.com/j3seer/CVE-2023-22515-POC
drilldown_searches:
    - name: View the detection results for - "$dest$"
      search: '%original_detection_search% | search  dest = "$dest$"'
      earliest_offset: $info_min_time$
      latest_offset: $info_max_time$
    - name: View risk events for the last 7 days for - "$dest$"
      search: '| from datamodel Risk.All_Risk | search normalized_risk_object IN ("$dest$") starthoursago=168  | stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime values(search_name) as "Search Name" values(risk_message) as "Risk Message" values(analyticstories) as "Analytic Stories" values(annotations._all) as "Annotations" values(annotations.mitre_attack.mitre_tactic) as "ATT&CK Tactics" by normalized_risk_object | `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` | `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`'
      earliest_offset: $info_min_time$
      latest_offset: $info_max_time$
rba:
    message: Potential exploitation attempts on a known vulnerability in Atlassian Confluence detected. The source IP is $src$ and the destination hostname is $dest$.
    risk_objects:
        - field: dest
          type: system
          score: 50
    threat_objects:
        - field: src
          type: ip_address
tags:
    analytic_story:
        - CVE-2023-22515 Privilege Escalation Vulnerability Confluence Data Center and Server
    asset_type: Web Server
    atomic_guid: []
    mitre_attack_id:
        - T1190
    product:
        - Splunk Enterprise
        - Splunk Enterprise Security
        - Splunk Cloud
    security_domain: network
tests:
    - name: True Positive Test
      attack_data:
        - data: https://media.githubusercontent.com/media/splunk/attack_data/master/datasets/attack_techniques/T1190/confluence/confluence_vuln_trigger_cve-2023-22515.log
          source: not_applicable
          sourcetype: suricata