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Showing posts with label Jira server breach. Show all posts

Atlassian Rovo AI Can Be Abused to Exfiltrate Jira, Confluence Data

 




Atlassian's Rovo AI assistant has been exposed to two independent attack techniques that could cause it to retrieve Jira and Confluence data accessible to an authenticated user and transmit the information to an attacker-controlled server.

AI security firm PromptArmor and Varonis Threat Labs identified the techniques through different attack paths. Varonis' RovoBlast vulnerability has been fixed by Atlassian, while PromptArmor said its separate content-based attack remained exploitable when it published its findings on August 5, 2026.

Neither finding demonstrated a direct bypass of Jira or Confluence permissions. Instead, both attacks abused the legitimate access available to a victim's Rovo session.


Malicious content can manipulate Rovo

PromptArmor demonstrated an indirect prompt-injection attack in which attacker-controlled instructions were embedded inside content processed by Rovo.

In its example, a user uploaded a malicious document and asked Rovo to organize Jira tickets. The concealed instructions directed the assistant to search Jira and Confluence, collect information available to the user and place the results into an attacker-controlled URL request.

The attacker could then recover the stolen ticket and page contents through server logs.

PromptArmor said the victim would later see the expected ticket suggestions without an obvious indication that information had also been transmitted externally. The attack was not entirely zero-click, as the victim still had to expose Rovo to the malicious content and initiate a normal request. However, the subsequent exfiltration did not require a separate human approval step.

The firm also reported that disabling Rovo's web-search capability did not prevent its demonstrated attack because the exfiltration relied on a separate URL-retrieval capability.

PromptArmor identified the lack of a control preventing Rovo from opening a URL constructed by the model as a root cause. It also noted that Rovo can render Markdown images from model output, which could provide another potential route for data leakage, although the firm did not demonstrate a complete Rovo attack through that mechanism.

PromptArmor said it disclosed the issue to Atlassian on May 23, followed up on June 4 and July 29, and published after reporting no further communication. Its disclosure did not establish whether the content-based attack was remediated after publication.


RovoBlast used a malicious link

Varonis discovered a separate vulnerability involving Rovo's "rovoChatPrompt" URL parameter.

An attacker could place instructions directly into a specially crafted Rovo Chat link. When an authenticated user clicked the link, Rovo would load the attacker-controlled prompt and execute it using the user's existing permissions.

Varonis demonstrated the technique by instructing Rovo to retrieve sensitive information, place it into an attacker-controlled image URL and fetch the resource, thereby sending the data to the attacker.

The researchers successfully exfiltrated a private API key stored in Confluence. They also tested the technique against Jira information and data accessible through SharePoint and Outlook connectors.

The vulnerability, dubbed RovoBlast, was reported through Bugcrowd, received a P2 priority rating and earned a $6,000 bounty. Bugcrowd records Atlassian as deploying a server-side fix on July 8, 2026, after which the researcher validated the remediation and the report was marked resolved.


Enterprise permissions remain central to the risk

Rovo operates across Atlassian products and can incorporate information from connected third-party applications. Atlassian says Rovo access follows the permissions available to the user, meaning the demonstrations did not provide attackers with unrestricted tenant access.

However, the findings expose a different problem: an attacker can attempt to make the AI assistant use a victim's legitimate permissions for an unintended purpose.

Atlassian provides administrators with controls to restrict Rovo by application and, for Enterprise customers, by user group. Rovo is available on Standard, Premium and Enterprise Cloud plans, while disabling Rovo for one Jira-family application may not remove shared Rovo Search, Chat and Create capabilities if another Jira application on the same site still has Rovo enabled.

Neither disclosure reported confirmed exploitation against a real organization, and neither issue has a CVE or entry in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog as of August 8.

The immediate status is therefore split: Atlassian has confirmed the RovoBlast link vulnerability is closed, while the post-publication status of PromptArmor's separate content-borne attack remains unconfirmed.

Organizations using Rovo should review which applications, user groups and third-party connectors have access, tighten underlying data permissions and avoid treating the web-search setting alone as a complete defense against AI-assisted data exfiltration.

Ascom Confirms Cyberattack as HellCat Hackers Exploit Jira Servers

 

Swiss telecommunications company Ascom has disclosed a cyberattack on its IT infrastructure, confirming that the hacker group HellCat exploited compromised credentials to target Jira servers worldwide.

In an official statement, Ascom revealed that its technical ticketing system was breached on Sunday. The company has since launched an investigation to assess the impact of the attack.

With a presence in 18 countries, Ascom specializes in wireless on-site communication solutions. The HellCat hacking group has taken responsibility for the breach and informed BleepingComputer that it has stolen approximately 44GB of data, potentially affecting all divisions of the company.

Ascom assured that despite the intrusion into its technical ticketing system, the attack has not disrupted business operations. The company emphasized that its customers and partners do not need to take any precautionary measures.

“Investigations against such criminal offenses were initiated immediately and are ongoing. Ascom is working closely with the relevant authorities.” – Ascom

Rey, a representative of the HellCat hacking group, claimed that the stolen data includes source codes for multiple products, project details, invoices, confidential documents, and issue logs from Ascom’s ticketing system.

While Ascom has not shared technical specifics about the breach, HellCat has a track record of exploiting Jira ticketing systems, which are commonly used by software development and IT teams. These platforms often store critical data such as source code, authentication keys, IT roadmaps, customer information, and internal project discussions.

HellCat’s Widespread Jira Exploits

HellCat has previously been linked to cyberattacks on major corporations, including Schneider Electric, Telefónica, and Orange Group, all of which suffered breaches through their Jira servers.

Recently, the group also claimed responsibility for hacking British automaker Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), leaking around 700 internal documents. According to the hackers, the stolen data includes development logs, tracking information, source codes, and sensitive employee records.

“At the heart of this latest incident lies a technique that has become HELLCAT’s signature: exploiting Jira credentials harvested from compromised employees that were infected by Infostealers.” – Alon Gal, Co-founder and CTO, Hudson Rock

Gal noted that the JLR breach occurred through credentials belonging to an LG Electronics employee with third-party access to JLR’s Jira server. He further pointed out that these compromised credentials had been exposed for years but remained valid, enabling the hackers to infiltrate the system.

HellCat’s cyber activity has continued, with the group announcing another breach—this time targeting Affinitiv, a marketing and data analytics company serving OEMs and dealerships in the automotive sector. The hackers claim to have accessed Affinitiv’s Jira system, stealing a database containing over 470,000 unique email addresses and more than 780,000 records.

Affinitiv has acknowledged the reported attack and confirmed that an investigation is underway.

To validate their claims, the hackers have published screenshots revealing names, email addresses, postal addresses, and dealership details.

Cybersecurity experts warn that Jira has become a prime target for attackers due to its role in enterprise workflows and the vast amount of sensitive data it contains. Gaining unauthorized access can allow threat actors to move laterally, escalate privileges, and exfiltrate critical information.

Given the ease of acquiring credentials compromised by infostealers and the fact that many remain unchanged for extended periods, experts caution that such attacks may become increasingly common.