Confluence Connector - Security

Overview

This document describes security practices, update policies, and data handling properties of the Confluence Connector.

Security Updates

Security update cadence and release lifecycle expectations follow the canonical Upgrade and Release Process. Review this policy when planning upgrade windows and patch rollouts.

Security Reports

If you identify a potential vulnerability, report it through your standard Unique support/security contact and include connector version, affected tenant/environment, and reproduction details. Release handling expectations follow the Upgrade and Release Process.

Security Architecture

Security Principles

Read-Only Confluence Access

The connector only reads content from Confluence. All Confluence API calls use the GET method. No write, update, or delete operations are performed against Confluence.

• Cloud OAuth 2.0 (2LO): Access is limited to the permissions of the service account configured in the Atlassian Admin Console.

• Data Center OAuth 2.0 (2LO): The token request explicitly includes scope=READ, limiting the service account to read-only operations even if the application link grants broader permissions.

• Data Center PAT (not recommended; Data Center below 10.1 only): The token inherits the permissions of the user who created it. Operators should create a dedicated user with read-only access. Use OAuth 2.0 (2LO) on Data Center 10.1+ instead.

See Permissions for the full list of API endpoints and their justification.

Authentication

• OAuth 2.0 (2LO): Industry-standard client credentials flow

• Token caching: Tokens are cached in memory and refreshed before expiry

• No shared secrets in transit: Bearer tokens are sent via the Authorization header over HTTPS

See Authentication for setup and token flow details.

Secret Management

Secrets are protected through multiple layers:

• Environment variable resolution: Secret fields in configuration reference environment variables, injected via Kubernetes Secrets at runtime

• In-memory protection: Secret values are wrapped so that they cannot be accidentally serialized to logs or JSON output

• Log redaction: Authorization headers and secret fields are censored in structured log output

See Authentication -- Secret Resolution for the full resolution mechanism and supported fields.

Diagnostics Data Policy

Page and attachment titles are partially masked in logs by default to prevent accidental exposure of sensitive content.

The policy is controlled by the LOGS_DIAGNOSTICS_DATA_POLICY environment variable (default: conceal in the Helm chart).

Transport Security

• TLS: All external communication encrypted via HTTPS

• Custom CA support: Additional CA certificates can be provided for environments with corporate proxies or custom PKI

• No TLS downgrade: The connector does not expose configuration to disable TLS verification. Note that the Node.js NODE_TLS_REJECT_UNAUTHORIZED=0 environment variable can bypass TLS verification at runtime. Operators should ensure this variable is not set in production environments.

Tenant Isolation

The connector tags the root scope with an identifier derived from the Confluence instance on the first sync cycle. On every subsequent sync cycle, this ownership mark is verified before content is ingested. A mismatch aborts the tenant sync cycle, preventing the same Confluence instance from being connected to multiple Unique organizations, or the same root scope from being reused across different Confluence instances by accident.

See Flows -- Root Scope Ownership Validation for the full verification flow.

Data Handling

• Streaming transfers: Files streamed from Confluence to Unique, not stored locally

• In-memory processing: Page content processed in memory and uploaded directly

• No persistent storage: No local file storage of Confluence content

• Data flow: Confluence API --> Connector (memory/stream) --> Unique Ingestion API

Compliance Considerations

Data Residency

• The connector does not store Confluence content persistently

• Data flows: Confluence --> Connector (memory/stream) --> Unique

• No intermediate storage or caching of content on disk

• The connector runs where deployed (same cluster as Unique, or externally) -- data residency depends on the deployment location

Audit Logging

All operations are logged with:

• Timestamp

• Tenant identifier

• Operation type and resource identifiers

• Success/failure status

• Error details (if applicable)

• Item counts for discovery, diff, ingestion, and deletion operations

Access Controls

Best Practices

For Operators

1. Use environment variable resolution for all secret fields and inject values via Kubernetes Secrets

2. Set diagnostics data policy to conceal (the default) in production to mask diagnostic data in logs

3. Provide custom CA certificates if running in environments with corporate proxies or custom PKI

4. Use OAuth 2.0 (2LO) instead of PAT -- OAuth tokens expire and are automatically refreshed, while PATs are static and must be manually rotated

5. Review Confluence access grants periodically to ensure the connector's service account has read-only access to only the required spaces

6. Monitor logs for authentication failures and anomalies

7. Update promptly when security patches are released

For Security Teams

1. Audit secret injection -- verify that Kubernetes Secrets are the source for all credential values

2. Verify non-root execution -- confirm the container runs as a non-root user

3. Review tenant configurations -- ensure no secrets are hardcoded in YAML files

4. Check diagnostics data policy -- confirm masking is enabled in production

5. Test in staging before production updates

Related Documentation

• Authentication - Credential setup, secret resolution, token flows

• Configuration - Security-related settings and environment variables

• Permissions - Required Confluence and Unique API permissions

• Architecture - System components and infrastructure

Standard References

• Atlassian Security Best Practices - Atlassian security and trust center

• OWASP Top 10 - Web application security risks

• CycloneDX - SBOM specification

• SPDX - Software Package Data Exchange