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Elastic Kibana EUVDEUVD-2026-58259

| CVE-2026-72672 HIGH
Incorrect Authorization (CWE-863)
2026-08-13 elastic GHSA-6c3r-vhrx-4vh9
7.7
CVSS 3.1 · Vendor: elastic
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Attack ChainAIDerived

Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain

  1. Access
    Obtain Kibana account with Elastic Security feature role
  2. Delivery
    Navigate to endpoint policy artifact editor
  3. Exploit
    Initiate field value suggestion query on process.args or similar field
  4. Execution
    Kibana proxies query via internal privileged Elasticsearch service account
  5. Persist
    Receive telemetry field values containing credentials and tokens
  6. Impact
    Exfiltrate sensitive operational data

Vulnerability Assessment

Weakness
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A01:2025 - Broken Access Control
ASVS 5.0
V8 - Authorization Authorization logic validation
MITRE ATT&CK

1 technique across 1 tactic: Privilege Escalation

The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up.

Exploitation Conditions

Exploitation requires an authenticated Kibana session with at minimum the Elastic Security feature privilege (PR:L per CVSS vector) - unauthenticated access is not possible. The specific triggering mechanism is the field value autocomplete/suggestion API within the endpoint policy artifact authoring UI; the attacker must navigate to and interact with this specific editor component. The target environment must have Elastic Defend deployed and actively generating endpoint telemetry in the Elasticsearch cluster - without populated event indices there is no sensitive data to retrieve. No additional user interaction beyond the attacker's own browser session is required (UI:N). Exploitation is limited by the requirement for a valid Kibana account with an Elastic Security feature role; an organization that assigns this role only to users who also hold the corresponding Elasticsearch index read privileges effectively has no exploitable privilege gap.

Impact

The vendor-supplied CVSS 3.1 vector (AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N, score 7.7 High) accurately captures the core risk: low attack complexity, only low-privilege authentication required, and a scope change reflecting that Kibana's internal service account crosses into an Elasticsearch security domain the caller is not authorized to access. The C:H rating is justified because process command line telemetry is a high-value target - secrets managers, CI pipelines, and database clients routinely expose credentials in argv. No KEV listing is present in the input and no EPSS data was provided, so exploitation probability cannot be quantified numerically; exploitation sophistication is low once a qualifying Kibana account is in hand. There is no integrity or availability dimension. The CPE wildcard does not specify a minimum affected version, and the exact floor should be confirmed against the vendor advisory before scoping remediation effort.

Exploit ScenarioDerived

An attacker with a valid Kibana account assigned the Elastic Security feature role - but no Elasticsearch index privileges on Elastic Defend event indices - opens the endpoint policy artifact editor and triggers field value suggestions on fields such as process.args or process.command_line. Kibana silently proxies these queries through its internal service account, returning matching telemetry values directly to the attacker's browser session. The attacker extracts credentials, API keys, or database connection strings from the returned suggestions without any direct Elasticsearch access or elevated Kibana role.

This Week Schedule remediation this week. Why: HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9).
No patch listed yet 0.2% exploitation probability (EPSS)

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AnalysisAIv1 – Aug 13, 2026

Elastic Kibana's Elastic Security endpoint policy editor exposes sensitive Elastic Defend telemetry through a privilege escalation in the field value suggestion feature. Authenticated users holding Kibana Elastic Security feature privileges - but lacking Elasticsearch index-level read access to Elastic Defend event indices - can retrieve field values including process command line arguments, which routinely contain credentials, API tokens, and connection strings harvested from protected endpoints. No public exploit has been identified at time of analysis, but the low attack complexity and scope change across the Kibana-to-Elasticsearch authorization boundary make this straightforward to abuse by any user with a qualifying Kibana role.

RemediationAI

Upgrade Kibana to version 9.4.5 or later, as indicated by vendor security advisory ESA-2026-89 at https://discuss.elastic.co/t/kibana-9-4-5-security-update-esa-2026-89/389536. As a compensating control prior to patching, restrict the Elastic Security feature privilege strictly to users who both legitimately need endpoint policy authoring capability AND are authorized to read Elastic Defend event data - this shrinks the exploitable user population but does not eliminate the authorization bypass. A second compensating option is to temporarily disable or restrict the endpoint policy artifact editor UI for non-essential users, preventing access to the triggering feature; the trade-off is reduced operational capability for policy authors. Neither workaround addresses the underlying flaw; patching to 9.4.5 is the confirmed remediation path.

Affected VersionsENISA

Kibana 9.1.0 ≤9.4.4

Affected Packages

euvd kibana no fix

Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)

Affects your stack

Affects 1 package in euvd

Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.

Technical ContextAI · show details

The root cause is CWE-863 (Incorrect Authorization): Kibana's internal API for the endpoint policy artifact authoring UI resolves field value autocomplete suggestions by issuing Elasticsearch queries under Kibana's own privileged internal service account rather than the requesting user's account. This bypasses Elasticsearch's RBAC model entirely - only Kibana-level feature privilege checks are performed. Elastic Defend agent telemetry (process events, network events, registry writes, etc.) is stored in Elasticsearch indices normally governed by index-level privileges; this code path circumvents those controls. The affected product is cpe:2.3:a:elastic:kibana:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*, indicating the issue spans all Kibana versions in scope without a lower bound specified in the CPE string.

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Severity by source

Vendor (elastic) PRIMARY 7.7 HIGH
AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N
vuln.today AI 7.7 HIGH

Kibana's internal service account crosses the Elasticsearch RBAC boundary (S:C); low-privilege authentication is the only prerequisite (PR:L); confidentiality of sensitive telemetry is fully compromised (C:H); no integrity or availability impact applies.

3.1 AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N
4.0 AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:N/SC:H/SI:N/SA:N

Primary rating from Vendor (elastic).

CVSS VectorVendor: elastic

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
Low
User Interaction
None
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
None
Availability
None

DescriptionCVE.org

The Elastic Security capability that suggests existing field values while a user authors endpoint policy artifacts queries Elastic Defend event data with Kibana's internal Elasticsearch account instead of the account of the requesting user. Only Kibana feature privileges are verified, and the caller's Elasticsearch index privileges are not. An authenticated user who holds Elastic Security feature privileges but no read access to the Elastic Defend event indices can therefore retrieve field values from that data, including process command line arguments, which commonly contain tokens, credentials, connection strings, and other sensitive operational detail from protected hosts.

Executive ViewAI

Why It Matters

Elastic Kibana 8.x contains a privilege escalation vulnerability in the Elastic Security policy editor that allows authenticated users with Elastic Security feature privileges to access sensitive endpoint telemetry (process command lines, credentials, API tokens) from protected systems. An attacker with Kibana access can retrieve credentials harvested from organizational endpoints without requiring direct Elasticsearch index-level permissions. No patch is currently available, creating an immediate data exposure risk for any organization using Elastic Defend.

Business Impact: High
Compensating Controls

No vendor-released patch identified at time of analysis. Interim mitigations: (1) Restrict Kibana Elastic Security feature privileges to only users with documented endpoint policy administration requirements; (2) Enable audit logging on Kibana API endpoints and Elasticsearch queries to detect unauthorized field value retrieval; (3) Implement Elasticsearch field-level security to deny index reads on Elastic Defend event indices for all but administrative roles; (4) Consider network-level controls or VPN-only access to Kibana for security operations teams.

Threat Intelligence Overview

EPSS Score
0.2%
Top 84% exploitable
Prevalence
High
widely deployed enterprise SIEM and endpoint security platform
Data Quality
6 sources
Confidence: High

How this decision was reached

The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.

SignalValue
Severity HIGH
CISA KEV No
Public POC No
EPSS 0.2%
Patch available No
Active threat No
Deciding rule
HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9)
What every action level means
Emergency Immediate action required. Criteria: CRITICAL + in CISA KEV (actively exploited) without patch, OR CRITICAL + EPSS > 30% without patch, OR CRITICAL + active threat signals without patch.
Act Now Prioritize within 24-48h. Criteria: in KEV with patch available, OR CRITICAL + public POC, OR HIGH + EPSS > 10%, OR CRITICAL + active threat, OR any CRITICAL severity.
This Week Schedule remediation this week. Criteria: HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9). Patch within normal change window.
This Month Plan within 30 days. Criteria: MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9), lower exploitation probability. Include in regular patch cycle.
Monitor Track and reassess. Criteria: LOW severity (CVSS 0.1-3.9), minimal exploitation risk. No immediate action needed.

SSVC AssessmentENISA

SSVC Decision
Scheduled
Exploitation
None
System Exposure· derived
Open
Automatable
No
Human Impact
High
Technical Impact
Partial

Priority Score

38
Low Medium High Critical
KEV: 0
EPSS: 0
CVSS: +38
PoC: 0
Weaponized: 0
Threat intel: 0
Gov advisory: 0

Attack Technique

Authentication bypass attacks exploit flaws in the verification mechanisms that control access to systems and applications.

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