CVE-2017-8439 in Kibana
Summary
by MITRE
Kibana version 5.4.0 was affected by a Cross Site Scripting (XSS) bug in the Time Series Visual Builder. This bug could allow an attacker to obtain sensitive information from Kibana users.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/13/2019
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2017-8439 represents a critical cross site scripting flaw discovered in Kibana version 5.4.0 within the Time Series Visual Builder component. This vulnerability falls under the CWE-79 category of Cross-Site Scripting, which is a fundamental web application security weakness that occurs when an application includes untrusted data in web pages without proper validation or encoding. The Time Series Visual Builder functionality in Kibana allows users to create visual representations of time-based data trends, making it a particularly attractive target for attackers seeking to exploit user interactions with the interface.
The technical exploitation of this vulnerability occurs when an attacker crafts malicious input that gets rendered within the Time Series Visual Builder without proper sanitization. When authenticated users interact with the compromised visualization, the malicious script executes in their browser context, potentially allowing attackers to steal session cookies, credentials, or other sensitive information. This type of attack leverages the trust relationship between the user and the Kibana application, making it particularly dangerous as users are unlikely to suspect malicious activity when viewing legitimate visualizations. The vulnerability specifically affects the rendering mechanism of time series data visualizations, where user-provided parameters or data points are not adequately escaped or validated before being displayed.
The operational impact of CVE-2017-8439 extends beyond simple information disclosure, as it creates a persistent vector for attackers to establish footholds within environments where Kibana is deployed. Organizations using Kibana for security monitoring and log analysis face significant risk when this vulnerability exists, as attackers could potentially access sensitive operational data, compromise user sessions, or use the stolen credentials to escalate privileges within the broader security infrastructure. The vulnerability affects the ATT&CK technique T1566.001 - Phishing: Spearphishing Attachment, as attackers could craft malicious visualizations that appear legitimate to users, or T1071.004 - Application Layer Protocol: DNS, if the malicious scripts attempt to exfiltrate data through DNS tunneling. This makes the vulnerability particularly concerning for security operations centers that rely heavily on Kibana for monitoring and incident response activities.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2017-8439 should prioritize immediate patching of affected Kibana installations to version 5.4.1 or later, which contains the necessary fixes for the XSS vulnerability. Organizations should also implement additional security controls such as input validation and output encoding for all user-provided data within the visualization components. Network segmentation and monitoring of Kibana access patterns can help detect potential exploitation attempts, while user education regarding suspicious visualization content or unexpected behavior in the interface provides an additional layer of defense. The vulnerability demonstrates the importance of secure coding practices in web applications and the need for comprehensive security testing, particularly for components that handle user-generated content and dynamic data rendering. Security teams should also consider implementing web application firewalls or content security policies that can help prevent exploitation of similar vulnerabilities in other components of the Kibana platform.