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KibanaApplication · Elastic

CVE-2025-68389

MEDIUM · 6.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-12-18
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 8.19.9 / 9.1.9 or later.
See remediation →
71/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable 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
Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling (CWE-770) in Kibana can allow a low-privileged authenticated user to cause Excessive Allocation (CAPEC-130) of computing resources and a denial of service (DoS) of the Kibana process via a crafted HTTP 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 · high confidence

Kibana fails to properly limit or throttle resource allocation when processing certain HTTP requests, allowing authenticated users to craft requests that cause excessive CPU, memory, or other computing resource consumption, ultimately crashing the Kibana process.

MitigationApply the vendor-supplied patch or upgrade to a patched Kibana version. Additionally, consider implementing rate limiting at the proxy/load balancer level as a defense-in-depth measure while the patch is being applied.

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:>= 7.0.0, <= 7.17.29>= 8.0.0, < 8.19.9>= 9.0.0, < 9.1.9>= 9.2.0, < 9.2.3

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
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/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. Identify installed Kibana version
    Run 'kibana --version' from the Kibana installation directory, or check the version field in the package.json file located in the Kibana installation root, or look for the version in the initial startup logs
    Affected if The installed version falls within >= 7.0.0 to <= 7.17.29, OR >= 8.0.0 to < 8.19.9, OR >= 9.0.0 to < 9.1.9, OR >= 9.2.0 to < 9.2.3
  2. Verify authentication is enabled
    Inspect the kibana.yml configuration file for authentication-related settings such as xpack.security.enabled, opensearch.security.auth.enabled, or other authentication provider configurations
    Affected if Authentication is enabled and the Kibana version is in the affected ranges listed above - the CVE requires authenticated users to exploit the flaw
  3. Review Kibana for rate limiting configuration
    Check kibana.yml for any existing rate limiting or request throttling settings, and review any reverse proxy or load balancer configurations in front of Kibana for rate limit rules
    Affected if No rate limiting is configured and the version is vulnerable - absence of throttling means the environment lacks defense-in-depth controls
  4. Inspect logs for resource exhaustion indicators
    Review Kibana server logs for patterns of excessive CPU or memory usage, process restarts, or out-of-memory errors that correlate with specific authenticated user requests
    Affected if Logs show Kibana crashes or high resource consumption triggered by authenticated user requests without corresponding rate limit blocks

The environment is affected if Kibana is running a version within the specified vulnerable ranges and has authentication enabled, since the flaw requires authenticated users to send crafted requests that exhaust resources.

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 8.19.9 / 9.1.9 / 9.2.3 or later
Fixed in 8.19.99.1.99.2.3
Interim mitigation

Apply the vendor-supplied patch or upgrade to a patched Kibana version. Additionally, consider implementing rate limiting at the proxy/load balancer level as a defense-in-depth measure while the patch is being applied.

Recommended fix Moderate confidence

Kibana 7.17.30, 8.19.9+, 9.1.9+, or 9.2.3+ (depending on your current major version)

  1. 1. Identify the currently installed Kibana version using 'kibana --version' or checking the kibana.yml configuration
  2. 2. For Kibana 7.x (7.0.0 to 7.17.29): Upgrade to version 7.17.30 or later
  3. 3. For Kibana 8.x (8.0.0 to 8.19.8): Upgrade to version 8.19.9 or later
  4. 4. For Kibana 9.0.x (9.0.0 to 9.1.8): Upgrade to version 9.1.9 or later
  5. 5. For Kibana 9.2.x (9.2.0 to 9.2.2): Upgrade to version 9.2.3 or later
  6. 6. Backup Kibana configuration files (kibana.yml) and any custom dashboards/reports before upgrading
  7. 7. Stop the Kibana service
  8. 8. Install the upgraded Kibana package using your package manager (e.g., apt, yum, or archive)
Caveat Minor version upgrades within the same major version typically have minimal breaking changes; however, review the Elastic Stack release notes for any deprecation notices or configuration changes before upgrading

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

Fix this in Kibana Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation6.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
15.0 hours of engineering $2,640
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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-2025-68389 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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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