GeoNetwork up to 4.0.6-0/4.2.15/4.4.10 Elasticsearch-backed search proxy query privileges management

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability identified as problematic has been detected in GeoNetwork up to 4.0.6-0/4.2.15/4.4.10. Impacted is an unknown function of the component Elasticsearch-backed search proxy. The manipulation of the argument Query leads to privileges management. This vulnerability is listed as CVE-2026-46487. The attack may be initiated remotely. There is no available exploit. You should upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in GeoNetwork up to 4.0.6-0/4.2.15/4.4.10. It has been rated as problematic. This issue affects some unknown functionality of the component Elasticsearch-backed search proxy. The manipulation of the argument query with an unknown input leads to a privileges management vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-269. The product does not properly assign, modify, track, or check privileges for an actor, creating an unintended sphere of control for that actor. Impacted is confidentiality. The summary by CVE is:

GeoNetwork is a catalog application to manage spatially referenced resources. From 4.0.0-alpha.1 until 4.2.16 and 4.4.11, the Elasticsearch-backed search proxy can skip GeoNetwork's access-control filter injection when a client request has an omitted query field. The request is then forwarded to Elasticsearch without group visibility, draft exclusion, record ownership, or portal-specific filtering. An unauthenticated remote attacker can use the affected public search API to retrieve the full indexed contents of metadata records that should not be publicly visible. This issue is fixed in versions 4.2.16 and 4.4.11.

It is possible to read the advisory at github.com. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2026-46487 since 05/14/2026. The exploitation is known to be easy. The attack may be initiated remotely. No form of authentication is needed for a successful exploitation. Technical details of the vulnerability are known, but there is no available exploit. The attack technique deployed by this issue is T1068 according to MITRE ATT&CK.

Upgrading to version 4.2.16 or 4.4.11 eliminates this vulnerability.

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Productinfo

Name

• GeoNetwork

Version

• 4.0
• 4.2.0
• 4.2.1
• 4.2.2
• 4.2.3
• 4.2.4
• 4.2.5
• 4.2.6
• 4.2.7
• 4.2.8
• 4.2.9
• 4.2.10
• 4.2.11
• 4.2.12
• 4.2.13
• 4.2.14
• 4.2.15
• 4.4.0
• 4.4.1
• 4.4.2
• 4.4.3
• 4.4.4
• 4.4.5
• 4.4.6
• 4.4.7
• 4.4.8
• 4.4.9
• 4.4.10

CPE 2.3info

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• 🔒
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CPE 2.2info

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• 🔒

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