KibanaApplication · Elastic
CVE-2021-22142
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 · uneditedKibana contains an embedded version of the Chromium browser that the Reporting feature uses to generate the downloadable reports. If a user with permissions to generate reports is able to render arbitrary HTML with this browser, they may be able to leverage known Chromium vulnerabilities to conduct further attacks. Kibana contains a number of protections to prevent this browser from rendering arbitrary content.
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 · moderate confidenceKibana embeds a Chromium browser to generate downloadable reports. Users with report-generation permissions who can render arbitrary HTML could exploit known Chromium vulnerabilities to conduct further attacks, despite Kibana's existing protections against arbitrary content rendering.
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
KibanaApplication
>= 7.0.0, < 7.13.0CVSS 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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify installed Kibana versionRun 'kibana --version' or check the Kibana server log at startup, or inspect the installed package version using your package manager (e.g., rpm -qi kibana or dpkg -l kibana)Affected if The installed version is >= 7.0.0 and < 7.13.0
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Verify reporting feature is enabledCheck the Kibana configuration file (kibana.yml) or query the Kibana API endpoint /api/status to see if xpack.reporting.enabled is set to trueAffected if The reporting feature (xpack.reporting) is enabled in the Kibana configuration
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Confirm user has report generation permissionsReview the user roles and privileges in Kibana (via Security > Roles or the /api/security/roles API) to check if the user or their role includes the 'reporting' privilege or the 'canvas' privilege that enables report generationAffected if The user account in question has been granted report generation privileges (such as the reporting feature or canvas workpad reporting capability)
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Check for custom HTML rendering in reportsInspect any saved searches, visualizations, or dashboards that are configured for scheduled reporting to determine if they contain custom HTML or Markdown visualizations that could render arbitrary contentAffected if There are saved objects (visualizations, dashboards, or searches) scheduled for reporting that contain custom HTML rendering capabilities accessible to the reporting user
The environment is affected if Kibana version is between 7.0.0 and 7.12.x inclusive, the reporting feature is enabled, and the user has report generation permissions that could be leveraged to render arbitrary HTML through the embedded Chromium browser.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
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.
dbcve · scoped7.13.0
Restrict or audit report generation permissions to only trusted users, and apply vendor patches when released to address the underlying Chromium vulnerabilities.
7.13.0
- Upgrade Kibana to version 7.13.0 or later to obtain the fixed version of the embedded Chromium browser
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
Fix this in Kibana
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,168.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2021-22142 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2021-22142 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- 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
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