KibanaApplication · Elastic
CVE-2023-46675
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 · uneditedAn issue was discovered by Elastic whereby sensitive information may be recorded in Kibana logs in the event of an error or in the event where debug level logging is enabled in Kibana. Elastic has released Kibana 8.11.2 which resolves this issue. The messages recorded in the log may contain Account credentials for the kibana_system user, API Keys, and credentials of Kibana end-users, Elastic Security package policy objects which can contain private keys, bearer token, and sessions of 3rd-party integrations and finally Authorization headers, client secrets, local file paths, and stack traces. The issue may occur in any Kibana instance running an affected version that could potentially receive an unexpected error when communicating to Elasticsearch causing it to include sensitive data into Kibana error logs. It could also occur under specific circumstances when debug level logging is enabled in Kibana. Note: It was found that the fix for ESA-2023-25 in Kibana 8.11.1 for a similar issue was incomplete.
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 confidenceKibana versions prior to 8.11.2 contain an information disclosure vulnerability where sensitive authentication data (kibana_system credentials, API keys, end-user credentials, authorization headers, bearer tokens, client secrets) and security policy objects with private keys are inadvertently logged to Kibana error logs or debug logs when errors occur during Elasticsearch communication or when debug-level logging is enabled.
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
>= 7.13.0, < 7.17.16>= 8.0.0, < 8.11.2CVSS 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
- None
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify installed Kibana versionRun the command: bin/kibana --version or check the version in the kibana.yml config file, or query the Kibana API endpoint: GET /api/statusAffected if The installed version is >= 7.13.0 and < 7.17.16, OR >= 8.0.0 and < 8.11.2
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Verify if debug-level logging is enabledCheck the Kibana configuration file (kibana.yml) for the setting 'logging.verbose: true' or review the logging.dest and logging.quiet settingsAffected if Debug-level logging (verbose mode) is enabled in the configuration
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Locate Kibana log filesCheck the default log directory (usually /var/log/kibana/ or the directory specified by logging.dest in kibana.yml) for files named kibana.stdout.log, kibana.stderr.log, or kibana.json.logAffected if Kibana logs exist in the system
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Search logs for sensitive credential patternsUse grep or a text search tool to scan Kibana log files for patterns such as 'kibana_system', 'authorization', 'bearer', 'api_key', 'client_secret', or look for base64-encoded credential strings in context of error messagesAffected if Log files contain any of the sensitive data types (kibana_system credentials, API keys, bearer tokens, client secrets, or private keys) that were logged during error conditions
A user is affected if their Kibana version falls within the vulnerable ranges AND debug logging is enabled or error events have occurred that caused credential data to be written to logs.
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 · scoped7.17.168.11.2
Upgrade Kibana to version 8.11.2 or later to resolve this vulnerability, and avoid enabling debug-level logging in production environments unless necessary.
Kibana 8.11.2 or later (for 8.x branches); Kibana 7.17.16 or later (for 7.x branches)
- Back up current Kibana configuration, data, and logs before proceeding with the upgrade
- Review Elastic's official Kibana upgrade documentation for your current version to ensure compatibility
- Ensure Elasticsearch is upgraded to a compatible version that supports Kibana 8.11.2 (typically the same minor version or as per Elastic's compatibility matrix)
- Stop the Kibana service
- Upgrade Kibana to version 8.11.2 or later using your package manager or upgrade method (e.g., apt, yum, or Elastic's upgrade assistant)
- Start the Kibana service after upgrade completes
- Verify the upgrade was successful by checking that Kibana starts without errors
- Review Kibana logs after startup and under normal operation to confirm sensitive data (credentials, API keys, tokens) is no longer being logged
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
Fix this in Kibana
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,984.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-46675 — 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-2023-46675 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
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data