How should we interpret CVSS severity scores?

CVSS estimates technical severity, but it does not automatically equal business risk. Prioritize using context like internet exposure, asset criticality, known exploitation, and whether compensating controls exist. A Medium CVSS on an exposed production system can be more urgent than a Critical on an isolated non-production host.

Vulnerability Database

Q: What is a Vulnerability (CVE) and why does it matter?

A security vulnerability is a weakness in software, hardware, or configuration that can be exploited to compromise confidentiality, integrity, or availability. Many vulnerabilities are tracked as CVEs (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures), which provide a standardized identifier so teams can coordinate patching, mitigation, and risk assessment across tools and vendors.

Q: What's the difference between a vulnerability, an exploit, and a zero-day?

A vulnerability is the underlying weakness. An exploit is the method or code used to take advantage of it. A zero-day is a vulnerability that is unknown to the vendor or has no publicly available fix when attackers begin using it. Risk increases sharply when exploitation becomes reliable or widespread.

Q: Why do vulnerabilities keep reappearing in our environment?

Recurring findings usually come from incomplete asset discovery, inconsistent patch management, inherited images, and configuration drift. In modern environments, you also need to watch the software supply chain: dependencies, containers, build pipelines, and third-party services can reintroduce the same weakness even after you patch a single host.

Q: How do we prioritize remediation without burning out the team?

Use a repeatable triage model: focus first on externally exposed assets, high-value systems (identity, VPN, email, production), vulnerabilities with known exploits, and issues that enable remote code execution or privilege escalation. Then enforce patch SLAs and track progress so remediation is steady, not reactive.

Q: How can SynScan help reduce vulnerability risk over time?

SynScan combines attack surface monitoring and continuous security auditing to keep your inventory current, flag high-impact vulnerabilities early, and help you turn raw findings into a practical remediation plan.

328,409

Total vulnerabilities in the database

CVE-2024-21678

This High severity Stored XSS vulnerability was introduced in version 2.7.0 of Confluence Data Center.

This Stored XSS vulnerability, with a CVSS Score of 8.5, allows an authenticated attacker to execute arbitrary HTML or JavaScript code on a victims browser which has high impact to confidentiality, low impact to integrity, no impact to availability, and requires no user interaction. Data Center

Atlassian recommends that Confluence Data Center customers upgrade to the latest version. If you are unable to do so, upgrade your instance to one of the specified supported fixed versions: ||Affected versions||Fixed versions|| |from 8.7.0 to 8.7.1|8.8.0 recommended or 8.7.2| |from 8.6.0 to 8.6.1|8.8.0 recommended| |from 8.5.0 to 8.5.4 LTS|8.8.0 recommended or 8.5.5 LTS or 8.5.6 LTS| |from 8.4.0 to 8.4.5|8.8.0 recommended or 8.5.6 LTS| |from 8.3.0 to 8.3.4|8.8.0 recommended or 8.5.6 LTS| |from 8.2.0 to 8.2.3|8.8.0 recommended or 8.5.6 LTS| |from 8.1.0 to 8.1.4|8.8.0 recommended or 8.5.6 LTS| |from 8.0.0 to 8.0.4|8.8.0 recommended or 8.5.6 LTS| |from 7.20.0 to 7.20.3|8.8.0 recommended or 8.5.6 LTS| |from 7.19.0 to 7.19.17 LTS|8.8.0 recommended or 8.5.6 LTS or 7.19.18 LTS or 7.19.19 LTS| |from 7.18.0 to 7.18.3|8.8.0 recommended or 8.5.6 LTS or 7.19.19 LTS| |from 7.17.0 to 7.17.5|8.8.0 recommended or 8.5.6 LTS or 7.19.19 LTS| |Any earlier versions|8.8.0 recommended or 8.5.6 LTS or 7.19.19 LTS| Server

Atlassian recommends that Confluence Server customers upgrade to the latest 8.5.x LTS version. If you are unable to do so, upgrade your instance to one of the specified supported fixed versions:

||Affected versions||Fixed versions|| |from 8.5.0 to 8.5.4 LTS|8.5.5 LTS or 8.5.6 LTS recommended | |from 8.4.0 to 8.4.5|8.5.6 LTS recommended| |from 8.3.0 to 8.3.4|8.5.6 LTS recommended| |from 8.2.0 to 8.2.3|8.5.6 LTS recommended| |from 8.1.0 to 8.1.4|8.5.6 LTS recommended| |from 8.0.0 to 8.0.4|8.5.6 LTS recommended| |from 7.20.0 to 7.20.3|8.5.6 LTS recommended| |from 7.19.0 to 7.19.17 LTS|8.5.6 LTS recommended or 7.19.18 LTS or 7.19.19 LTS| |from 7.18.0 to 7.18.3|8.5.6 LTS recommended or 7.19.19 LTS| |from 7.17.0 to 7.17.5|8.5.6 LTS recommended or 7.19.19 LTS| |Any earlier versions|8.5.6 LTS recommended or 7.19.19 LTS|

See the release notes ([https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/confluence-release-notes-327.html]). You can download the latest version of Confluence Data Center from the download center ([https://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence/download-archives]).

This vulnerability was reported via our Bug Bounty program.

Published: Feb 20, 2024
Updated: Nov 16, 2025
CVE: CVE-2024-21678
Severity: High
Exploit:

CVSS v3:

Severity: High
Score: 8.5
AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:L/A:N

CWEs:

CWE-79

OWASP TOP 10:

A7 - Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)

Affected Software
References

Software	From	Fixed in
atlassian / confluence_data_center	-	7.19.19
atlassian / confluence_server	-	7.19.19
atlassian / confluence_data_center	7.20.0	8.5.5
atlassian / confluence_server	7.20.0	8.5.5
atlassian / confluence_data_center	8.6.0	8.7.2

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is a Vulnerability (CVE) and why does it matter?

A security vulnerability is a weakness in software, hardware, or configuration that can be exploited to compromise confidentiality, integrity, or availability. Many vulnerabilities are tracked as CVEs (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures), which provide a standardized identifier so teams can coordinate patching, mitigation, and risk assessment across tools and vendors.

CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring System) estimates technical severity, but it doesn't automatically equal business risk. Prioritize using context like internet exposure, affected asset criticality, known exploitation (proof-of-concept or in-the-wild), and whether compensating controls exist. A "Medium" CVSS on an exposed, production system can be more urgent than a "Critical" on an isolated, non-production host.

A vulnerability is the underlying weakness. An exploit is the method or code used to take advantage of it. A zero-day is a vulnerability that is unknown to the vendor or has no publicly available fix when attackers begin using it. In practice, risk increases sharply when exploitation becomes reliable or widespread.

Recurring findings usually come from incomplete Asset Discovery, inconsistent patch management, inherited images, and configuration drift. In modern environments, you also need to watch the software supply chain: dependencies, containers, build pipelines, and third-party services can reintroduce the same weakness even after you patch a single host. Unknown or unmanaged assets (often called Shadow IT) are a common reason the same issues resurface.

Use a simple, repeatable triage model: focus first on externally exposed assets, high-value systems (identity, VPN, email, production), vulnerabilities with known exploits, and issues that enable remote code execution or privilege escalation. Then enforce patch SLAs and track progress using consistent metrics so remediation is steady, not reactive.

SynScan combines attack surface monitoring and continuous security auditing to keep your inventory current, flag high-impact vulnerabilities early, and help you turn raw findings into a practical remediation plan.