CVE-2026-82298 in Kibana
Summary
by MITRE • 09/03/2026
Incorrect Authorization (CWE-863) in Kibana can lead to denial of service via Exploiting Incorrectly Configured Access Control Security Levels (CAPEC-180).
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/03/2026
The vulnerability identified as CWE-863, representing an incorrect authorization flaw within the Elastic Kibana application suite, presents a significant risk to system availability and integrity. This specific weakness stems from improper enforcement of access control policies, where the software fails to adequately verify whether a user or process has the necessary permissions to perform a requested action on a given resource. In the context of web-based applications like Kibana, which serves as a primary interface for visualizing data stored in Elasticsearch, such authorization failures can be particularly severe because they often expose administrative functions and sensitive data retrieval mechanisms to unauthorized actors. The core technical flaw lies in the application logic that governs role-based access control (RBAC) or other security level configurations, where edge cases or misconfigurations allow requests intended for privileged operations to bypass validation checks.
Exploitation of this vulnerability aligns with CAPEC-180, which describes the technique of exploiting incorrectly configured access control security levels. An attacker can leverage this flaw by crafting specific HTTP requests that target endpoints responsible for resource management, dashboard creation, or index pattern configuration without possessing the requisite administrative privileges. By manipulating these parameters, an adversary may trigger operations that consume excessive system resources, such as memory and CPU cycles, on both the Kibana server and the underlying Elasticsearch cluster. This manipulation does not necessarily require code execution but rather abuses the legitimate functionality of the application to create a state of resource exhaustion. The attacker effectively uses the application's own processing capabilities against it, turning standard operational tasks into vectors for disruption.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is primarily characterized by denial of service conditions that degrade or completely halt the availability of the Kibana interface and potentially affect the broader Elasticsearch cluster performance. When an unauthorized user triggers resource-intensive operations through these misconfigured access controls, the system may become unresponsive to legitimate users attempting to query data or view dashboards. In high-availability environments where real-time monitoring is critical, such disruptions can lead to significant operational blind spots and business continuity issues. Furthermore, if the exploitation leads to partial state corruption or requires manual intervention to reset services, the recovery time objective increases, compounding the negative impact on organizational productivity and trust in the security infrastructure.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability require a multi-layered approach focusing on strict access control enforcement and network-level protections. Administrators must ensure that Kibana is configured with the principle of least privilege, verifying that all user roles are assigned only the minimum permissions necessary for their job functions. Regular audits of role mappings and permission settings should be conducted to identify any overly permissive configurations that could be exploited via CAPEC-180 techniques. Additionally, deploying Web Application Firewalls can help detect and block anomalous request patterns associated with resource exhaustion attacks before they reach the application layer. Keeping Kibana updated to the latest version is critical, as vendors frequently release patches addressing authorization logic flaws in subsequent releases. Finally, implementing rate limiting on API endpoints can mitigate the impact of any successful exploitation by throttling excessive requests that attempt to overwhelm system resources.