Description

Incorrect Authorization (CWE-863) in Kibana can lead to information disclosure via Exploiting Incorrectly Configured Access Control Security Levels (CAPEC-180).

Executive Summary

Technical Details

Mitigations

References

Additional Metadata

{
  "score": "6.5",
  "pubDate": "2026-09-03T19:17:29.707Z",
  "pubdate": "2026-09-03T19:17:29.707Z",
  "executiveSummary": "This vulnerability is categorized as Incorrect Authorization (CWE-863) within the Kibana platform. The flaw resides in the application's access control mechanisms, allowing unauthorized users to circumvent security boundaries. By leveraging CAPEC-180 (Exploiting Incorrectly Configured Access Control Security Levels), an attacker can access sensitive information that should otherwise be restricted based on assigned user permissions.\nThe primary risk implication involves unauthorized information disclosure, potentially exposing internal data structures, logs, or metrics stored within the Kibana interface. The impact is significant, as it violates the principle of least privilege and undermines the confidentiality of the analytics environment. Attackers require a baseline level of access or knowledge of the target system to identify misconfigured endpoints, but the exploit generally does not require advanced administrative privileges if the underlying security level mapping is incorrectly implemented.\nSuccessful exploitation results in the retrieval of data that the authenticated user is not authorized to view. Organizations utilizing Kibana must ensure that access control policies are strictly enforced and regularly audited to prevent such unauthorized data access scenarios.",
  "technicalDetails": "The root cause of this vulnerability is a breakdown in the authorization logic of Kibana, where the system fails to correctly validate the user's security level against the requested resource's access control policy. This falls under CWE-863, specifically where an application does not perform sufficient authorization checks, or performs them incorrectly, allowing an actor to perform actions or access data outside their intended scope.\nIn the context of CAPEC-180, an attacker identifies that the access control mechanism relies on insufficiently restrictive security level metadata. When a user requests a resource, Kibana’s authorization engine should verify that the user's session token or assigned role possesses the necessary privileges to interact with the specified object. Due to the flaw, the application fails to enforce the required security boundaries, effectively defaulting to an permissive state for specific API endpoints or UI components.\nThe attack flow typically proceeds as follows: First, the attacker maps the Kibana API endpoints and identifies resources that are subject to authorization checks. Second, the attacker probes these endpoints using a standard authenticated session. Third, the attacker manipulates request parameters or headers that dictate the scope of the data retrieval. Because the authorization check is flawed, the server processes the request without correctly verifying that the authenticated user's security context matches the sensitivity level of the requested data.\nThe vulnerable component involves the internal authorization layer responsible for mediating access between the frontend interface and the underlying Elasticsearch indices or Kibana-specific data objects. This vulnerability can be exploited by any authenticated user who can reach the Kibana web interface over the network. The technical impact is the bypass of intended access constraints, leading to unauthorized data exfiltration.\nPost-exploitation, an attacker can gain visibility into metrics, logs, and sensitive configurations that were intended to be restricted to administrative or elevated user roles. This allows for reconnaissance of the underlying environment, potentially facilitating further attacks or the theft of proprietary intelligence stored within the Kibana dashboard environment."
}