CVE-2025-25013
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 · uneditedImproper restriction of environment variables in Elastic Defend can lead to exposure of sensitive information such as API keys and tokens via automatic transmission of unfiltered environment variables to the stack.
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 confidenceImproper restriction of environment variables in Elastic Defend allows unfiltered environment variables (potentially containing API keys, tokens, and other secrets) to be automatically transmitted to the stack, leading to sensitive information exposure.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
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
- 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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Verify Elastic Defend is installed and runningCheck for Elastic Defend processes or integration status using system tools (e.g., systemctl status, ps aux | grep -i elastic, or check Elastic Agent status in Kibana under Security > Manage > Elastic Defend)Affected if Elastic Defend integration is active or installed on the system
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Determine the installed Elastic Defend versionQuery the Elastic Agent or integration version via Kibana (Fleet > Agents > select agent > Elastic Defend integration) or run 'elastic-agent version' on the host, then compare to any published affected version range from Elastic security advisoriesAffected if The version matches or falls within an unpatched vulnerable version range
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Identify environment variables present in Elastic Defend processesInspect environment variables of Elastic Agent/Defend processes using commands like 'cat /proc/<PID>/environ' or 'ps eww -p <PID>' for Linux, or Process Explorer on WindowsAffected if Environment variables are visible and accessible to the Elastic Defend process
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Check for sensitive values in exposed environment variablesReview the environment variable list for patterns indicating secrets: API keys, bearer tokens, AWS keys, secrets with prefixes like 'API_', 'TOKEN_', 'SECRET_', 'KEY_', or credential-like alphanumeric stringsAffected if Any environment variable contains actual API keys, tokens, passwords, or other credential-like values that should not be transmitted
If Elastic Defend is running with a vulnerable version and sensitive environment variables (containing API keys, tokens, or secrets) are present in the process environment, those secrets may be automatically transmitted to the Elastic stack and the system is affected.
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.
From vendor dataAwait vendor patch from Elastic; in the interim, review and remove sensitive values from environment variables used by systems running Elastic Defend, or isolate Elastic Defend to dedicated environments without sensitive secrets.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Testing1.0 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 $1,200.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2025-25013 — 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-2025-25013 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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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.
- 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