CVE-2019-13422 in Search Guard Plugin
Summary
by MITRE
Search Guard Kibana Plugin versions before 5.6.8-7 and before 6.x.y-12 had an issue that an attacker can redirect the user to a potentially malicious site upon Kibana login.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 08/04/2020
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2019-13422 affects the Search Guard Kibana plugin, a security solution that provides authentication and authorization capabilities for Elasticsearch and Kibana environments. This issue represents a critical security flaw that could enable attackers to manipulate user navigation during the authentication process, potentially leading to phishing attacks or malicious site redirections. The vulnerability specifically impacts versions prior to 5.6.8-7 for the 5.x series and before 6.x.y-12 for the 6.x series, indicating that these plugin versions contained a flaw in their redirect handling mechanism during user login procedures.
The technical flaw manifests in the plugin's improper validation of redirect URLs during the Kibana login process. When users attempt to authenticate with the Search Guard plugin, the system should validate that any redirect destinations are safe and authorized within the legitimate application context. However, the vulnerability allows attackers to craft malicious URLs that bypass these validation checks, enabling them to redirect users to arbitrary external domains. This represents a classic open redirect vulnerability that falls under the CWE-601 category, specifically CWE-601 Open Redirect, which occurs when an application redirects users to external domains without proper validation of the target URL. The flaw essentially allows an attacker to manipulate the redirect parameter in the authentication flow, potentially capturing user credentials or other sensitive information through social engineering attacks.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple redirection, as it creates a significant attack surface that can be exploited in various ways within the broader security ecosystem. Attackers can leverage this vulnerability to conduct phishing campaigns where users are redirected to malicious sites that appear legitimate, potentially leading to credential theft, malware distribution, or data exfiltration. The attack vector aligns with techniques described in the MITRE ATT&CK framework under the T1566 phase of social engineering, where attackers manipulate users into visiting malicious websites. Organizations using affected versions of the Search Guard plugin face a heightened risk of successful social engineering attacks, particularly in environments where users frequently interact with Kibana dashboards and may be less vigilant about URL verification during authentication processes.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability require immediate patching of affected Search Guard plugin versions to the recommended secure releases. Organizations should implement comprehensive inventory management to identify all instances of the vulnerable plugin across their infrastructure and prioritize remediation efforts. Additionally, network-level controls such as web application firewalls and URL filtering mechanisms can provide additional layers of protection by monitoring and blocking suspicious redirect patterns. Security teams should also implement user education programs to increase awareness about recognizing potentially malicious redirects and encourage verification of destination URLs before proceeding with authentication. The fix typically involves implementing proper URL validation and sanitization routines that ensure all redirect destinations are either internal to the application or explicitly authorized external domains, thereby preventing the exploitation of the open redirect vulnerability.