CVE-2016-10364 in Kibana
Summary
by MITRE
With X-Pack installed, Kibana versions 5.0.0 and 5.0.1 were not properly authenticating requests to advanced settings and the short URL service, any authenticated user could make requests to those services regardless of their own permissions.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/18/2019
The vulnerability described in CVE-2016-10364 represents a critical authorization flaw within the Kibana security framework that emerged in versions 5.0.0 and 5.0.1 when X-Pack was installed. This issue fundamentally undermined the access control mechanisms that should have protected sensitive administrative functions and services within the Elastic stack ecosystem. The flaw manifested as a failure in the authentication process where the system did not properly validate user permissions before granting access to advanced configuration settings and the short URL service functionality. This misconfiguration created a scenario where any user who had successfully authenticated to the Kibana interface could exploit these services without proper authorization, effectively bypassing the intended role-based access controls that should have restricted access to privileged operations.
The technical nature of this vulnerability aligns with CWE-285, which addresses improper authorization issues in software systems. The flaw specifically targeted the authentication validation logic within Kibana's X-Pack module, where the system failed to implement proper permission checks for advanced settings and short URL service endpoints. This allowed authenticated users to make unauthorized requests to these services, creating a privilege escalation scenario where basic users could access administrative functions typically restricted to authorized administrators. The vulnerability exploited the principle of least privilege by enabling unauthorized access to services that should have required elevated permissions or specific user roles to access.
The operational impact of this vulnerability was significant as it provided attackers with potential access to sensitive configuration data and URL shortening services that could be leveraged for further exploitation. An authenticated user could potentially modify advanced settings that might affect system behavior, access configuration files, or manipulate the short URL service to redirect traffic to malicious destinations. This capability could lead to data exfiltration, system compromise, or the establishment of persistent access points within the network. The vulnerability essentially created a backdoor through which any authenticated user could gain access to administrative functions without proper authorization, potentially exposing the entire Kibana instance to unauthorized manipulation and control.
Organizations utilizing Kibana with X-Pack were immediately at risk of unauthorized access to their monitoring and analytics platforms, potentially compromising the integrity of their security data and operational insights. The vulnerability required a simple authenticated session to exploit, making it particularly dangerous as it could be leveraged by both internal users with legitimate access and external attackers who had obtained valid credentials through other means. Security teams faced the challenge of mitigating this issue while maintaining system availability, as the fix required immediate patching of the affected Kibana versions. The recommended mitigation strategy involved upgrading to patched versions of Kibana that properly implemented authorization checks for the affected services, ensuring that only users with appropriate permissions could access advanced settings and the short URL service. This vulnerability highlighted the critical importance of proper access control implementation in security-sensitive applications and underscored the need for comprehensive security testing of authentication mechanisms before deployment in production environments.