A high-severity path traversal vulnerability (CVE‑2025‑22167) affecting Jira Software Data Center and Server has been disclosed. The flaw allows authenticated users (with low privilege) to write files to any path on the host that the JVM process can access, posing serious risks of tampering, remote code execution or data corruption.
What the Vulnerability Does
- The flaw is classified as a path traversal / arbitrary write issue: an attacker can supply specially crafted input that causes the application to write to unintended filesystem locations.
- An attacker only needs authenticated (low-privilege) access to exploit it, and with network access to the Jira web interface, the exploit vector is accessible.
- Because the affected versions include many widely-deployed Jira branches (versions from 9.12.0, 10.3.0 through 11.0.0), many enterprises may be vulnerable.
- The possible consequences include dropping malicious files, modifying configuration, creating persistence mechanisms or combining with other vulnerabilities to achieve full system compromise.
Industry Implications
The impact of this vulnerability spans multiple sectors, especially where Jira is used for issue tracking, development workflows or internal services:
- Financial services & FinTech – Jira often tracks critical development tasks, so compromising Jira servers can lead to access to source code, change logs or internal configuration.
- Healthcare & Life Sciences – Any disruption of issue tracking or modification of workflows could affect regulatory compliance and patient safety.
- Retail & E-Commerce – Retail firms relying on Jira for operations, bug tracking or vendor integration may face supply-chain risk if Jira servers are compromised.
- Manufacturing & Industrial – Jira instances used for firmware or ICS software development could act as entry-points into operational technology (OT) networks.
- Government & Public Sector – Jira instances used in public-sector development or citizen-services projects may expose sensitive data or infrastructure when vulnerable.
Recommended Actions
- Patch Immediately – Upgrade to the fixed versions as recommended by vendor:
- Restrict Access – Limit administrative and user access to Jira web interfaces from trusted networks only.
- Monitor File System Writes – Deploy logging to detect unexpected file writes outside intended directories, especially by the Jira JVM process.
- Harden Permissions – Ensure Jira directories run with least privilege, and isolate deployments so that a compromise of the JVM process cannot write to sensitive system paths.
- Hunt for Exploitation – Perform forensic review for unexpected files, scheduled tasks, or modifications made recently in Jira servers.
- Segment & Isolate – Place Jira servers in network segments separate from critical production systems to reduce blast radius.
- Review Authentication Controls – Ensure that low-privilege users cannot escalate via Jira, and enforce strong authentication and monitoring for user actions.
Conclusion
CVE-2025-22167 represents a serious threat to any organization using Jira Software on its data-centre or server installations. The ability for an authenticated user to write arbitrary files can serve as a stepping stone to full compromise. Protecting your Jira instance is no longer just a convenience-it’s a critical element of your security posture.
About COE Security
COE Security partners with organizations in financial services, healthcare, retail, manufacturing, and government to secure AI-powered systems and ensure compliance. Our offerings include:
- AI-enhanced threat detection and real-time monitoring
- Data governance aligned with GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI DSS
- Secure model validation to guard against adversarial attacks
- Customized training to embed AI security best practices
- Penetration Testing (Mobile, Web, AI, Product, IoT, Network & Cloud)
- Secure Software Development Consulting (SSDLC)
- Customized CyberSecurity Services
For vulnerability risks like this, COE Security provides application-platform audits, privilege-escalation risk assessments, file-system integrity monitoring, and segmentation strategy consulting to ensure your Jira platforms remain secure.
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