#VU51712 Improper Preservation of Permissions in Elasticsearch - CVE-2021-22137

Vulnerability identifier: #VU51712

Vulnerability risk: Low

CVSSv4.0: 1.3 [CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:L/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:U/U:Clear]

CVE-ID: CVE-2021-22137

CWE-ID: CWE-281

Exploitation vector: Network

Exploit availability: No

Vulnerable software:
Elasticsearch
Web applications / Other software

Vendor: Elastic Stack

Description

The vulnerability allows a local user to gain access to sensitive information.

The vulnerability exists due to search queries do not properly preserve security permissions when executing certain cross-cluster search queries. A remote user can disclose existence of documents via search functionality, when Document or Field Level Security is used.

Mitigation
Install updates from vendor's website.

Vulnerable software versions

Elasticsearch: 6.0.0 - 6.0.1, 6.1.0 - 6.1.4, 6.2.0 - 6.2.4, 6.3.0 - 6.3.2, 6.4.0 - 6.4.3, 6.5.0 - 6.5.4, 6.6.0 - 6.6.2, 6.7.0 - 6.7.2, 6.8.0 - 6.8.14, 7.0.0 beta1 - 7.0.1, 7.1.0 - 7.11.1, 7.2.0 - 7.2.1, 7.3.0 - 7.3.2, 7.4.0 - 7.4.2, 7.5.0 - 7.5.2, 7.6.0 - 7.6.2, 7.7.0 - 7.7.1, 7.8.0 - 7.8.1, 7.9.0 - 7.9.3

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External links
https://www.elastic.co/community/security#ESA-2021-08

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Q & A

Can this vulnerability be exploited remotely?

Yes. This vulnerability can be exploited by a remote authenticated user via the Internet.

Is there known malware, which exploits this vulnerability?

No. We are not aware of malware exploiting this vulnerability.