Elastic AgentApplication · Elastic
CVE-2023-6687
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 Elastic Agent would log a raw event in its own logs at the WARN or ERROR level if ingesting that event to Elasticsearch failed with any 4xx HTTP status code except 409 or 429. Depending on the nature of the event that Elastic Agent attempted to ingest, this could lead to the insertion of sensitive or private information in the Elastic Agent logs. Elastic has released 8.11.3 and 7.17.16 that prevents this issue by limiting these types of logs to DEBUG level logging, which is disabled by default.
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 confidenceElastic Agent logs raw events at WARN or ERROR level when ingestion to Elasticsearch fails with 4xx HTTP status codes (except 409 or 429), causing sensitive or private data from those events to be written to Elastic Agent's log files.
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
Elastic AgentApplication
>= 7.0.0, < 7.17.16>= 8.0.0, < 8.11.3CVSS 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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Determine installed Elastic Agent versionRun 'elastic-agent version' or check the version field in the elastic-agent.yml configuration file, or inspect the installed package (e.g., dpkg -l filebeat-elastic-agent, rpm -qi elastic-agent)Affected if The version is >= 7.0.0 and < 7.17.16, or >= 8.0.0 and < 8.11.3
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Verify Elastic Agent is configured for Elasticsearch ingestionInspect the Elastic Agent policy or configuration for outputs pointing to Elasticsearch (look for 'outputs:' section with 'elasticsearch:' target)Affected if Elastic Agent is configured to send data directly to Elasticsearch (the flaw only applies when ingestion to Elasticsearch fails)
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Examine Elastic Agent logs for raw event data in WARN or ERROR entriesReview Elastic Agent log files (typically in /var/lib/elastic-agent/data/elastic-agent/elastic-agent/logs/ or C:\Program Files\Elastic\Agent\data\elastic-agent\logs\ on Windows) for messages at WARN or ERROR level that contain raw JSON event payloads, field values, or request/response bodiesAffected if Log files contain WARN or ERROR messages with raw event data (the vulnerability causes sensitive data from failed 4xx responses to be logged)
A user is affected if their Elastic Agent version falls within the vulnerable ranges AND they have log entries showing raw event data at WARN/ERROR level from failed Elasticsearch ingestion (4xx errors excluding 409/429).
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 · scoped7.17.168.11.3
Upgrade Elastic Agent to version 8.11.3/7.17.16 or later, which changes these problematic logs from WARN/ERROR level to DEBUG level (disabled by default), preventing sensitive data exposure.
7.17.16 or 8.11.3 depending on your major version branch
- Upgrade Elastic Agent from 7.0.0-7.17.15 to version 7.17.16 if running on the 7.x branch
- Upgrade Elastic Agent from 8.0.0-8.11.2 to version 8.11.3 if running on the 8.x branch
- After upgrade, verify that sensitive data is no longer written to Elastic Agent logs at WARN/ERROR levels
- If debugging is needed, enable DEBUG level logging which is now used for these events instead of WARN/ERROR
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
Fix this in Elastic Agent
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-2023-6687 — 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-2023-6687 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
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