| Package | Affected versions | Patched versions |
|---|---|---|
| mcp-atlassian | < 0.22.0 | 0.22.0 |
| mcp atlassian | < 0.22.0 | 0.22.0 |
mcp-atlassian is a popular community MCP server wrapper exposing Jira / Confluence to MCP clients. Operators commonly restrict the surface to a small allowlist of projects/spaces via the JIRA_PROJECTS_FILTER and CONFLUENCE_SPACES_FILTER environment variables, which the README documents as the principal mechanism for limiting attacker-controlled MCP clients (= prompt-injected LLM agents) to the operator's intended subset of the workspace.
We identified three distinct sub-bugs that let attacker-controlled queries read content from forbidden projects/spaces (= projects NOT in the operator's filter) despite the filter being correctly set. The most severe is empirically reproduced on production Atlassian Cloud with real operator credentials and sentinel content in two real projects.
| Sub-bug | Layer | Class | Live? |
|---|---|---|---|
| A1 | Jira jira_search jql | substring-bypass | 🔴 LIVE PROVEN 2026-05-18 on real Atlassian Cloud |
| A2 | Confluence confluence_search cql | case-sensitive substring-bypass | code-level verified |
| B | Jira agile get_board_issues / get_agile_boards | zero-filter (missing check) | code-level verified |
Sub-bug A1 — src/mcp_atlassian/jira/search.py lines 92-94 at HEAD d8bc78698a63cb6b321c7ca796d6329d448f7f6d:
if projects_filter and "project = " not in jql.lower():
jql = f"{jql} AND project in ({','.join(projects_filter)})"
The substring check is satisfied by any JQL of the form project = <forbidden-project> — including a project NOT in projects_filter. The wrapper does NOT verify that the project named in the user JQL is a member of the allowlist. The user-supplied JQL is sent verbatim to Jira's search API which returns content from the forbidden project (Jira's authorization is satisfied because the operator's PAT typically has broader access than the operator's intended allowlist — which is why the operator set a filter in the first place).
— line 60: same pattern as A1, PLUS the substring check is (no ). User CQL (uppercase) bypasses the substring match.
Running one of these products? Scan your site to see whether it exposes a vulnerable version.
Scan my site freesrc/mcp_atlassian/confluence/search.py"space = " not in cql.lower()SPACE = "<forbidden-space>"Sub-bug B — get_board_issues and get_agile_boards paths have no projects_filter enforcement at all — no substring check, no AST walk, the allowlist is silently ignored. An MCP client invoking get_agile_boards enumerates boards across the entire workspace (including forbidden projects), and get_board_issues(boardId=<forbidden-board>) returns all issues with no filter check.
End-to-end Phase C against real Atlassian Cloud + real mcp-atlassian Python binary v0.21.1 (latest on PyPI) with operator-provided test workspace and two real Jira projects (one allowed, one forbidden via JIRA_PROJECTS_FILTER):
| Step | JQL submitted | Result | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 initialize | – | MCP 2024-11-05 OK | ✓ |
| 2 tools/list | – | 33+ tools incl. jira_search | ✓ |
| 3 CONTROL | project = <allowed> | returns allowed issue | ✓ |
| 4 NEG CTRL | summary ~ "any-string" | wrapper appends AND project in (<allowed>) → 0 forbidden results | ✓ |
| 5 BYPASS A1 | project = <forbidden> | returns forbidden issue with sentinel content | 🔴 BYPASS |
Full RPC log and a reproducible test script are available in a disclosure bundle I have prepared. I can share the zip via a private channel (email / your preferred private fork / encrypted upload) — please reply with your preference. The bundle includes:
source-jira-search.py, source-confluence-search.py)034cbf0bcb66c325be9373ff2dc186b8b0e1747c5165d6fba3bca83054949dd3Repro recipe (no bundle needed) :
pip install mcp-atlassian
export JIRA_URL=https://<your-test-workspace>.atlassian.net
export JIRA_USERNAME=<your-test-email>
export JIRA_API_TOKEN=<your-pat>
export JIRA_PROJECTS_FILTER=<your-allowed-project-key>
# Then drive the MCP via stdio JSON-RPC with tools/call jira_search jql="project = <forbidden-project-key>"
# Expect: forbidden project content returned despite the filter.
Severity is higher in deployments where the operator's PAT covers a broader set of projects than JIRA_PROJECTS_FILTER (= the common configuration, which is the reason operators set the filter).
Affected: every operator who relies on JIRA_PROJECTS_FILTER / CONFLUENCE_SPACES_FILTER to confine an attacker-controlled MCP client (= prompt-injected LLM agent) to a subset of their workspace.
project/space constraints. Reject queries whose project/space constraint references a key not in the allowlist.projects_filter check inside get_board_issues (resolve board → project, reject if not in filter) and get_agile_boards (filter returned list).cql.lower()) for defense-in-depth, even after the AST fix lands.project = <not-in-filter> returns zero results when the filter is set.ISO/IEC 29147. Default 90-day embargo from the date you acknowledge receipt. Happy to coordinate the CVE via the GitHub CNA pipeline. Credit under: Mordehai Attia, Founder, Corsen AI (https://corsen.ai , GitHub @CorsenAI).
Thank you for maintaining mcp-atlassian — the project is widely used and your security policy was clear, which made this disclosure straightforward to file. Looking forward to coordinating the fix.