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ElasticsearchDatabase / datastore · Elastic

CVE-2022-23712

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2022-06-06
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 8.2.1 or later.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable No privileges 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
A Denial of Service flaw was discovered in Elasticsearch. Using this vulnerability, an unauthenticated attacker could forcibly shut down an Elasticsearch node with a specifically formatted network request.

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

A Denial of Service vulnerability in Elasticsearch allows an unauthenticated attacker to forcibly shut down an Elasticsearch node by sending a specifically formatted network request. The vulnerability is network-exploitable and requires no authentication, making exposed Elasticsearch clusters particularly vulnerable to remote shutdown.

MitigationImmediately restrict network access to Elasticsearch nodes using firewalls or network segmentation. Apply the relevant Elasticsearch security patch when available. Consider implementing rate limiting or additional network-level protections for cluster endpoints.

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
ElasticsearchDatabase / datastore
Affected:>= 8.0.0, < 8.2.1

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
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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. Check Elasticsearch version
    Run the command: curl -X GET 'localhost:9200' or check the version file in the Elasticsearch installation directory (bin/elasticsearch --version or cat elasticsearch-*/lib/elasticsearch-*.jar version file)
    Affected if The installed version is 8.0.0, 8.0.1, 8.0.2, 8.0.3, 8.1.0, 8.1.1, 8.1.2, 8.1.3, 8.2.0, or any version >= 8.0.0 and < 8.2.1
  2. Verify network exposure
    Review elasticsearch.yml configuration file (located in config/ directory) for network binding settings: grep -E 'network.host|http.host|transport.host' elasticsearch.yml. Also check firewall rules and cloud security groups allowing inbound access to port 9200 (REST API) or 9300 (transport)
    Affected if The node is bound to a non-loopback address (0.0.0.0, external IP, or network interface) and is accessible from untrusted networks without firewall protection
  3. Confirm authentication is not enforced
    Check elasticsearch.yml for xpack.security.enabled and xpack.security.authc settings. Verify security is enabled: curl -X GET 'localhost:9200/_security/_authenticate' returns a valid user response
    Affected if Security features are disabled (xpack.security.enabled: false) or the REST API is accessible without credentials from the network

You are affected if Elasticsearch version is 8.0.0 through 8.2.0 (exclusive of 8.2.1) AND the node is network-accessible to unauthenticated attackers from untrusted networks.

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 8.2.1 or later
Fixed in 8.2.1
Interim mitigation

Immediately restrict network access to Elasticsearch nodes using firewalls or network segmentation. Apply the relevant Elasticsearch security patch when available. Consider implementing rate limiting or additional network-level protections for cluster endpoints.

Recommended fix High confidence

8.2.1

  1. 1. Back up your Elasticsearch cluster data and configuration before starting the upgrade process.
  2. 2. Review the Elasticsearch upgrade documentation at https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/setup-upgrade.html
  3. 3. Ensure you have sufficient disk space and resources for the upgrade.
  4. 4. For production environments, consider upgrading non-production nodes first to test compatibility.
  5. 5. Download Elasticsearch version 8.2.1 from https://www.elastic.co/downloads/elasticsearch
  6. 6. Stop the Elasticsearch service on all nodes in your cluster.
  7. 7. Install Elasticsearch 8.2.1 on each node.
  8. 8. Start the Elasticsearch service and verify the cluster is healthy using the _cluster/health API.
Caveat Review the Elasticsearch 8.2.1 release notes for any breaking changes or deprecations before upgrading

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

Fix this in Elasticsearch Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
22.0 hours of engineering $3,860
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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-2022-23712 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