CVE-2022-23707: Elastic Kibana XSS Vulnerability

CVE-2022-23707 Overview

A Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability was discovered in Elastic Kibana's index patterns functionality. This stored XSS vulnerability allows an authenticated user with permissions to create index patterns to inject malicious JavaScript code into the index pattern configuration. Once injected, this malicious script can execute in the browsers of other users who view or interact with the affected index pattern, potentially leading to session hijacking, credential theft, or unauthorized actions performed on behalf of victims.

Critical Impact

Authenticated attackers can inject persistent malicious JavaScript through index patterns, enabling session hijacking, credential theft, and unauthorized actions against other Kibana users who access the compromised index patterns.

Affected Products

• Elastic Kibana (versions prior to 7.17.0)

Discovery Timeline

• 2022-02-11 - CVE CVE-2022-23707 published to NVD
• 2024-11-21 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2022-23707

Vulnerability Analysis

This vulnerability is classified as CWE-79 (Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation), commonly known as Cross-Site Scripting. The flaw exists within Kibana's index pattern management feature, which fails to properly sanitize user-supplied input when creating or modifying index patterns. This allows attackers to embed JavaScript code that persists in the application's data store and executes when rendered in other users' browsers.

The attack requires the attacker to be authenticated with sufficient privileges to create or modify index patterns. Once the malicious payload is stored, it affects any user who subsequently views the compromised index pattern through the Kibana web interface, making this a stored (persistent) XSS attack.

Root Cause

The root cause stems from insufficient input validation and output encoding within Kibana's index pattern handling mechanism. When users create or edit index patterns, the application does not properly sanitize special characters and script tags before storing the data. Furthermore, when rendering these index patterns in the user interface, the application fails to properly encode the output, allowing embedded JavaScript to execute in the victim's browser context.

Attack Vector

The attack is network-based and requires the attacker to have authenticated access to a Kibana instance with permissions to create index patterns. The attack flow involves:

1. The attacker authenticates to Kibana with a user account that has index pattern creation privileges
2. The attacker creates or modifies an index pattern, injecting malicious JavaScript code into a vulnerable field
3. The malicious payload is stored in the Elasticsearch backend
4. When other users navigate to view index patterns or access the affected pattern, the malicious JavaScript executes in their browser
5. The script can then steal session cookies, perform actions as the victim user, or redirect users to phishing sites

The vulnerability requires user interaction (the victim must view the affected index pattern), and the scope is changed as the malicious script can affect resources beyond the vulnerable component's security context.

Detection Methods for CVE-2022-23707

Indicators of Compromise

• Unusual JavaScript code or <script> tags present in index pattern configurations
• Unexpected network requests originating from Kibana sessions to external domains
• Index patterns containing encoded characters or obfuscated content that may indicate script injection attempts
• User session tokens or credentials being exfiltrated through network logs

Detection Strategies

• Monitor Kibana audit logs for suspicious index pattern creation or modification events
• Implement Content Security Policy (CSP) headers to detect and report unauthorized script execution
• Review index pattern configurations regularly for anomalous or unexpected content
• Deploy web application firewalls (WAF) configured to detect XSS payloads in HTTP requests

Monitoring Recommendations

• Enable Kibana's audit logging feature to track all index pattern operations
• Configure alerting on index pattern changes, especially from non-administrative accounts
• Monitor browser console errors and CSP violation reports for evidence of blocked XSS attempts
• Implement user behavior analytics to detect unusual access patterns to index management features

How to Mitigate CVE-2022-23707

Immediate Actions Required

• Upgrade Elastic Kibana to version 7.17.0 or later immediately
• Review existing index patterns for any suspicious or unexpected content
• Audit user accounts with index pattern creation permissions and apply principle of least privilege
• Implement network-level monitoring to detect potential data exfiltration attempts

Patch Information

Elastic has addressed this vulnerability in Kibana version 7.17.0. Organizations should upgrade to this version or later to remediate the XSS vulnerability. Detailed information about the security update is available in the Elastic Kibana Security Update discussion.

Workarounds

• Restrict index pattern creation permissions to only trusted administrative users
• Implement strict Content Security Policy headers to prevent execution of inline scripts
• Deploy a web application firewall with XSS filtering rules in front of Kibana
• Consider network segmentation to limit exposure of Kibana instances to untrusted users

# Example CSP header configuration for Kibana
# Add to kibana.yml to help mitigate XSS attacks
server.customResponseHeaders:
  Content-Security-Policy: "script-src 'self'; object-src 'none'; frame-ancestors 'self'"