Elasticsearch Remote Cluster Search Cross Cluster API Key insufficient restrictions

Description

It was identified that if a cross-cluster API key https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/8.14/security-api-create-cross-cluster-api-key.html#security-api-create-cross-cluster-api-key-request-body restricts search for a given index using the query or the field_security parameter, and the same cross-cluster API key also grants replication for the same index, the search restrictions are not enforced during cross cluster search operations and search results may include documents and terms that should not be returned.

This issue only affects the API key based security model for remote clusters https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/8.14/remote-clusters.html#remote-clusters-security-models that was previously a beta feature and is released as GA with 8.14.0

Basic information

Type
reviewed
Severity
medium
Advisory on GitHub
Open advisory ↗
Repository advisory
Source code
Browse source ↗
Published (advisory)
2024-06-12 15:31:44 UTC
Updated
2024-10-31 19:31:07 UTC
GitHub reviewed
2024-06-12 19:44:09 UTC
NVD published
2024-06-12

EPSS Score

Score Percentile
0.27% 50.51%

CVSS Scores

Base score Version Severity Vector
6.5 3.1
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.

Identifiers

CWEs

CWE id Name
CWE-200 Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor
CWE-922 Insecure Storage of Sensitive Information

Affected packages (1)

Vulnerable version ranges and first patched releases as published by GitHub.

Ecosystem Package Vulnerable range First patched Vulnerable functions
maven org.elasticsearch:elasticsearch > 8.10.0, < 8.14.0 8.14.0

References

cvelogic Threat Intelligence