Jira Service Management Server and Data Center Advisory (CVE-2023-22501)

Summary of Vulnerability

This advisory discloses a critical severity security vulnerability which was introduced in version 5.3.0 of Jira Service Management Server and Data Center. The following versions are affected by this vulnerability:

• 5.3.0

• 5.3.1

• 5.3.2

• 5.4.0

• 5.4.1

• 5.5.0

An authentication vulnerability was discovered in Jira Service Management Server and Data Center which allows an attacker to impersonate another user and gain access to a Jira Service Management instance under certain circumstances. With write access to a User Directory and outgoing email enabled on a Jira Service Management instance, an attacker could gain access to signup tokens sent to users with accounts that have never been logged into. Access to these tokens can be obtained in two cases:

• If the attacker is included on Jira issues or requests with these users, or

• If the attacker is forwarded or otherwise gains access to emails containing a “View Request” link from these users.

Bot accounts are particularly susceptible to this scenario. On instances with single sign-on, external customer accounts can be affected in projects where anyone can create their own account.

The issue can be tracked here: JSDSERVER-12312 - Getting issue details... STATUS

Severity

Atlassian rates the severity level of this vulnerability as critical, according to the scale published in our Atlassian severity levels. The scale allows us to rank the severity as critical, high, moderate or low.

This is our assessment and you should evaluate its applicability to your own IT environment.

Affected Versions

Jira Service Management Server and Data Center versions 5.3.0 to 5.3.1 and 5.4.0 to 5.5.0 are affected by this vulnerability.

Fixed Versions

What You Need to Do

Atlassian recommends that you upgrade each of your affected installations to one of the listed fixed versions (or any later version) above (see the “Fixed Versions” section of this page for details). For a full description of the latest version of Jira Service Management Server and Data Center, see the release notes. You can download the latest version of Jira Service Management and Data Center from the download center. For Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), click here.

Mitigation

Installing a fixed version of Jira Service Management is the recommended way to remediate this vulnerability. If you are unable to immediately upgrade Jira Service Management, you can manually upgrade the version-specific servicedesk-variable-substitution-plugin JAR file as a temporary workaround.

To update the servicedesk-variable-substitution-plugin JAR file:

1. Download the version-specific JAR file from the table above.
2. Stop Jira.

3. Copy the JAR file into your Jira home directory.

   1. For Server: <Jira_Home>/plugins/installed-plugins

   2. For Data Center: <Jira_Shared>/plugins/installed-plugins
4. Start Jira.

Detection

Atlassian cannot confirm if your instance has been affected by this vulnerability, but there are some steps you can follow to investigate your instances for potential unauthorized access. You can see the detailed steps outlined on the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page here.

Support

For Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), click here. 

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If you have questions or concerns regarding this advisory, please raise a support request at https://support.atlassian.com/.

References