A plugin named "Web Shell Plugin" in Confluence DC user installed apps, is it a malware?
Asked by Michael Gates:

I just upgrade Confluence DC to 8.3.4 from 8.3.3 yesterday. (3/Nov/2023)

Then I find a plugin named "Web Shell Plugin" in user-installed apps.

I did not install this plugin manually.

I am not sure whether it is in the apps list, when Confluence DC is 8.3.3.

Is it a Atlassian plugin within Confluence DC itself? It seems a malware.

It's not a free plugin. I just disabled it.

And it's not a valid url when I click "buy now".

I could not find this plugin in Atlassian Marketplace.

![webshellplugin.jpg](/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/290094i480E123ED8BB4FD2/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "webshellplugin.jpg")

Has my Confluence instance been hacked?


Answers:
author: Michael Gates
body: I checked the audit log in admin console.

There are some unusual "permission added" records in the log.

And the plugin was installed by someone unexpected.

![Snipaste_2023-11-04_17-53-30.jpg](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/290097i1C1EC924C9B4110B/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Snipaste_2023-11-04_17-53-30.jpg")

So we could check the audit log to find evidence.

Thanks!


author: Julian from AF
body: Hello,

we were attacked last friday 03/11. Confluence was in 8.5.2 since one week (upgraded from 7.18). This monday morning confluence seems to be reseted. Normally we use a plugin with Redifined and not at this time. The clean blue design of Confluence. We are unable to login (usually it's SSO by AAD) After checking the log we detected theses lines :

2023-11-03 08:52:25,223 ERROR \[http-nio-8090-exec-6 url: /json/setup-restore.action\] \[confluence.importexport.actions.SetupRestoreAction\] validate Could not locate the backup you wish to restore:

Was made by an attacker, the hacker reseted our instance. We restored from a backup from thursday 02/11 and immediatly upgraded to 8.5.3 fixed version... We only lost one day of data (friday).

comments: author: Henry Nguyen
body: Same thing for us, Confluence 8.5.2 was not fixed for the security issue.  

If you running similar issue like [@Julian from AF](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/2310439) , I would suggest a solution as following:  

1\> Recover new Admin password, you guys can check at here (<https://www.cnblogs.com/zdxster/p/5345215.html>), for 8.5.2 version, please use **PKCS5S2 .**Also use google translate for this Chinese site.

2\> Restore immediately from your latest backup.

3\> Upgrade to 8.5.3 immediately

<br />

Also, we use Cloudflare for Confluence, we make more restrictions on IPs range to access and other type of access. (Config for Cloudflare, please check it here: <https://lastcallmedia.com/blog/how-use-cloudflares-free-flexible-ssl-jira-and-confluence-server-apache-and-proxypass>)  

Hope it would help.


author: MK
body: Hello Michael,

yes, it was an attack, and from the look of it, a sucessfull one so you should probably get in touch with the atlassian support as soon as possible.  

see "<https://confluence.atlassian.com/security/cve-2023-22518-improper-authorization-vulnerability-in-confluence-data-center-and-server-1311473907.html>" for more information

Regards

comments: author: Michael Gates
body: Hi, [@Michael Krause](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/609865)

Yes, u r right.

I noticed this security issue, so I upgraded Confluence from 8.3.3 to 8.3.4.


author: NGPilot
body: It seems not like a normal app the best to do is uninstall it.

comments: author: Michael Gates
body: Yes!

It's a normal plugin providing web shell function.

But it's installed by hacker, so I have uninstalled it.

Thanks, ROC!


Tags: confluence-server

server