CVE-2019-11581 — Jira Server
CRITICALCVE-2019-11581 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) CWE-74 vulnerability in atlassian jira server. It is in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2022-03-07) — treat it as actively exploited and patch now. A fix is available — see the affected versions and patch details below.
There was a server-side template injection vulnerability in Jira Server and Data Center, in the ContactAdministrators and the SendBulkMail actions. An attacker is able to remotely execute…
Exploitation Status
Actively exploited in the wild
- Confirmed by CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2022-03-07. Federal agencies were required to remediate by 2022-09-07.
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
- A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA (KEV catalog and SSVC triage) for CVE-2019-11581.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2019-11581 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). In the shaded patch-first corner (EPSS 50%+, CVSS 7.0+).
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 394,803 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the 50–90% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.
Description
There was a server-side template injection vulnerability in Jira Server and Data Center, in the ContactAdministrators and the SendBulkMail actions. An attacker is able to remotely execute code on systems that run a vulnerable version of Jira Server or Data Center. All versions of Jira Server and Data Center from 4.4.0 before 7.6.14, from 7.7.0 before 7.13.5, from 8.0.0 before 8.0.3, from 8.1.0 before 8.1.2, and from 8.2.0 before 8.2.3 are affected by this vulnerability.
Affected Products
jira serveratlassianResearch use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
There was a server-side template injection vulnerability in Jira Server …
There was a server-side template injection vulnerability in Jira Server …
There was a server-side template injection vulnerability in Jira Server …
There was a server-side template injection vulnerability in Jira Server …
There was a server-side template injection vulnerability in Jira Server …
There was a server-side template injection vulnerability in Jira Server …
Detection & mitigation playbook
Vendor / applianceDetect
Inventory every atlassian jira server deployment and check each version against the affected-products list above.
Fix
Apply the atlassian jira server security patch or hotfix for CVE-2019-11581 on the affected version, following the vendor advisory for your exact build.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands. Alongside that, restrict the management interface to trusted networks and apply the vendor's recommended configuration mitigations.
How to detect CVE-2019-11581
A community-maintained Nuclei template exists for this CVE. You can scan for it directly:
nuclei -id cve-2019-11581 -u https://target- Template
- Atlassian Jira Server-Side Template Injection
- Severity
- critical
- Impact
- Successful exploitation of this vulnerability can lead to remote code execution, compromising the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the affected system.
- Remediation
- Apply the necessary security patches or upgrade to a fixed version provided by Atlassian to mitigate this vulnerability.
Template by ProjectDiscovery nuclei-templates (ree4pwn), MIT licensed. View the full template. Scan only systems you are authorised to test.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2019-11581 being exploited in your environment?
Detect and block the exploit chain at execution, on systems you cannot patch yet.