dbcve.org
Search GuardApplication

CVE-2019-13423

HIGH · 8.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2019-08-23
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 5.6.8-7 / 6.2.3-12 or later.
See remediation →
94/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
Search Guard Kibana Plugin versions before 5.6.8-7 and before 6.x.y-12 had an issue that an authenticated Kibana user could impersonate as kibanaserver user when providing wrong credentials when all of the following conditions a-c are true: a) Kibana is configured to use Single-Sign-On as authentication method, one of Kerberos, JWT, Proxy, Client certificate. b) The kibanaserver user is configured to use HTTP Basic as the authentication method. c) Search Guard is configured to use an SSO authentication domain and HTTP Basic at the same time

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · high confidence

Search Guard Kibana Plugin versions before 5.6.8-7 and 6.x.y-12 had an authentication bypass where an authenticated Kibana user could impersonate the kibanaserver user by providing wrong credentials when Kibana uses SSO (Kerberos/JWT/Proxy/Client cert) while Search Guard simultaneously uses an SSO authentication domain and HTTP Basic authentication for the kibanaserver user.

MitigationUpgrade Search Guard Kibana Plugin to version 5.6.8-7 or later, or 6.x.y-12 or later. Review authentication configuration to ensure SSO and HTTP Basic are not used concurrently in a manner that enables this impersonation.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Search GuardApplication
Affected:< 5.6.8-7>= 6.1.0-8, < 6.2.3-12

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify Search Guard Kibana Plugin version
    Check the installed Search Guard Kibana Plugin version by inspecting the package.json file in the Search Guard Kibana plugin directory (typically located at kibana/plugins/searchguard-kibana-plugin/package.json) or by running: npm list @searchguard/kibana-plugin from the Kibana home directory
    Affected if Version is below 5.6.8-7, or is 6.x.y where y is below 12 (versions >= 6.1.0-8 and < 6.2.3-12)
  2. Verify Kibana SSO configuration
    Inspect Kibana configuration file (kibana.yml) and look for authentication settings related to SSO: check for 'xpack.security.authProviders' set to [kerberos, jwt, proxy, or clientcert], or check for 'opendistro_security.auth.type' set to these SSO types
    Affected if Kibana is configured to use Kerberos, JWT, Proxy, or Client Certificate authentication
  3. Verify Search Guard SSO domain configuration
    Examine Search Guard configuration files (sg_config.yml or sg_action_groups.yml in the Search Guard configuration directory) and look for any authentication domain configured with type 'SAML', 'JWT', 'Kerberos', or 'Proxy'
    Affected if Search Guard has an active SSO authentication domain configured
  4. Verify HTTP Basic for kibanaserver user
    Inspect Search Guard internal users configuration (internal_users.yml) and authentication domain configuration to confirm the kibanaserver user is configured with authentication type 'basic' or 'internal'
    Affected if The kibanaserver user is configured to use HTTP Basic authentication
  5. Confirm concurrent SSO and HTTP Basic usage
    Review both Kibana and Search Guard configurations together: Kibana must be using SSO (from check 2) AND Search Guard must have both an SSO domain (from check 3) and HTTP Basic for kibanaserver (from check 4) simultaneously configured
    Affected if Both conditions are true: Kibana uses SSO AND Search Guard uses SSO domain with HTTP Basic for kibanaserver

Environment is affected if running a vulnerable Search Guard Kibana Plugin version AND both Kibana and Search Guard are configured to use SSO authentication concurrently with HTTP Basic authentication for the kibanaserver user.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

From vendor data
Upgrade available Upgrade to 5.6.8-7 / 6.2.3-12 or later
Fixed in 5.6.8-76.2.3-12
Interim mitigation

Upgrade Search Guard Kibana Plugin to version 5.6.8-7 or later, or 6.x.y-12 or later. Review authentication configuration to ensure SSO and HTTP Basic are not used concurrently in a manner that enables this impersonation.

Fix this in Search Guard Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
11.0 hours of engineering $1,970
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,152.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2019-13423 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

Get it on GitHub Scan in the browser

References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2019-13423 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.

What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data