dbcve.org
KibanaApplication · Elastic

CVE-2021-37936

MEDIUM · 5.4 CVSS v3.1 Published 2022-11-18
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 7.14.1 or later.
See remediation →
58/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable

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
It was discovered that Kibana was not sanitizing document fields containing HTML snippets. Using this vulnerability, an attacker with the ability to write documents to an elasticsearch index could inject HTML. When the Discover app highlighted a search term containing the HTML, it would be rendered for the user.

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 confidence

This is a stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in Kibana's Discover app. An attacker who can write documents to an Elasticsearch index can inject HTML snippets into document fields. When a user searches for a term that triggers the highlighting feature in Discover, the unsanitized HTML is rendered in the user's browser.

MitigationUpgrade Kibana to the patched version that implements proper HTML sanitization/escaping in the Discover app's search highlighting functionality.

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
Affected:< 7.14.1

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
Required
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
Low
Availability
None

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

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. Check installed Kibana version
    Run 'kibana --version' or check the version file in the Kibana installation directory, or query the Kibana API endpoint /api/status
    Affected if The version is lower than 7.14.1 (e.g., 7.14.0, 7.13.x, 7.12.x, etc.)
  2. Verify if Kibana Discover app is enabled
    Check the Kibana configuration file (kibana.yml) for the 'kibana.defaultAppId' setting or verify that the Discover application is accessible via the Kibana web interface
    Affected if The Discover app is enabled and accessible to users
  3. Identify Elasticsearch indices accessible via Discover
    Review which Elasticsearch indices are exposed through Kibana's index patterns in the Management or Stack Management section
    Affected if Any Elasticsearch indices are configured as index patterns in Kibana, as these could contain attacker-injected HTML content
  4. Audit Elasticsearch documents for injected HTML
    Query Elasticsearch indices using the _search API to inspect document fields for unescaped HTML tags such as <script>, <img>, <iframe>, or on* event handlers (e.g., onclick, onerror)
    Affected if Documents contain unsanitized HTML fragments in fields that would be displayed by the Discover app's highlighting feature

You are affected if Kibana version is below 7.14.1, the Discover app is enabled, and your Elasticsearch indices contain documents with injected HTML that could be rendered when users trigger search highlighting.

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 7.14.1 or later
Fixed in 7.14.1
Interim mitigation

Upgrade Kibana to the patched version that implements proper HTML sanitization/escaping in the Discover app's search highlighting functionality.

Recommended fix High confidence

Kibana 7.14.1 or later (within the 7.x series)

  1. Upgrade Kibana to version 7.14.1 or later
  2. If running a multi-node Kibana cluster, upgrade all nodes
  3. After upgrade, verify the Kibana service is running and accessible
  4. Test that the Discover app properly sanitizes HTML content in document fields
Caveat Minor version upgrades within 7.x typically have minimal breaking changes; review Elastic Stack 7.14 release notes for any specific changes

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Kibana Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
11.0 hours of engineering $1,930
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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-2021-37936 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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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