CVE-2024-23442: Elastic Kibana Open Redirect Vulnerability

CVE-2024-23442 Overview

CVE-2024-23442 is an open redirect vulnerability in Elastic Kibana that allows attackers to redirect authenticated users to arbitrary external websites. The flaw resides in how Kibana processes URL parameters, permitting a maliciously crafted Kibana URL to redirect the victim to an attacker-controlled destination. This vulnerability is classified under [CWE-601] (URL Redirection to Untrusted Site) and requires user interaction to succeed. While the direct technical impact is limited, open redirects enable convincing phishing campaigns by abusing the trust users place in the legitimate Kibana domain.

Critical Impact
Attackers can craft Kibana URLs that transparently redirect users to attacker-controlled sites, enabling phishing and credential theft under the guise of a trusted Elastic domain.

Affected Products

Elastic Kibana versions prior to 7.17.22
Elastic Kibana 8.x versions prior to 8.14.0
Deployments exposing Kibana URLs to end users through email, chat, or web content

Discovery Timeline

2024-06-14 - CVE-2024-23442 published to the National Vulnerability Database
2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2024-23442

Vulnerability Analysis

The vulnerability is an open redirect flaw ([CWE-601]) in the Kibana web interface. Kibana accepts URL parameters that influence post-authentication or in-app navigation destinations without adequately validating that the target URL belongs to a trusted origin. An attacker constructs a URL pointing to a legitimate Kibana instance while embedding an external destination in a redirect parameter. When a user clicks the link, Kibana forwards the browser to the attacker-supplied location. Because the initial URL appears legitimate, victims are more likely to trust the resulting landing page, which typically hosts credential phishing content or malware delivery pages.

Root Cause

The root cause is insufficient validation of user-supplied redirect targets. Kibana treats the redirect parameter as trusted input and issues an HTTP redirect (or client-side navigation) without confirming the destination is same-origin or belongs to an allowlist of approved hosts. This pattern violates the guidance in [CWE-601], which requires either strict allowlists, indirect reference maps, or explicit user confirmation before navigating to external destinations.

Attack Vector

Exploitation requires an attacker to craft a Kibana URL and convince an authenticated or unauthenticated user to click it, typically through phishing email, malicious chat message, or a compromised web page. No privileges are needed on the Kibana instance itself, and the attack traverses the network. Once the user follows the link, the browser is redirected to the attacker's site, which can impersonate the Kibana login screen or a corporate SSO portal to harvest credentials. The vulnerability can also be chained with other client-side attacks to escalate impact.

No public proof-of-concept exploit is available, and the vulnerability is not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. Refer to the Elastic Security Update Discussion for vendor-provided technical details.

Detection Methods for CVE-2024-23442

Indicators of Compromise

Kibana access logs containing requests with redirect, next, return, or similar query parameters pointing to external domains
Outbound HTTP referrer traffic originating from the Kibana host header but landing on unfamiliar external domains
User reports of Kibana links that terminated on login pages hosted outside the organization

Detection Strategies

Parse Kibana HTTP access logs for query parameters containing fully qualified URLs or protocol-relative references such as //attacker.example
Build web proxy or SIEM correlation rules that flag redirects from Kibana hostnames to non-corporate destinations
Hunt for phishing lures in email gateways that reference the organization's Kibana FQDN combined with URL-encoded external targets

Monitoring Recommendations

Forward Kibana and reverse-proxy access logs to a centralized analytics platform for retention and pattern analysis
Alert on anomalous spikes in Kibana URLs shared through email or messaging platforms
Track user-agent and geolocation anomalies for accounts whose credentials may have been phished after a redirect

How to Mitigate CVE-2024-23442

Immediate Actions Required

Upgrade Kibana to version 7.17.22, 8.14.0, or later as published in the Elastic security advisory
Inventory all Kibana deployments, including test and staging instances, and confirm patch coverage
Notify users to report suspicious Kibana links and to verify the destination domain before entering credentials

Patch Information

Elastic addressed the vulnerability in Kibana 7.17.22 and Kibana 8.14.0. Administrators should review the Elastic Security Update Discussion for release notes and upgrade guidance. Apply the update through the standard Kibana upgrade procedure and validate functionality in a non-production environment first.

Workarounds

Restrict Kibana access to trusted networks using firewall rules or a VPN to reduce phishing exposure
Deploy a reverse proxy or web application firewall rule that blocks Kibana redirect parameters containing external URLs
Enforce multi-factor authentication on all accounts that could be targeted by phishing follow-on attacks

bash

# Example WAF rule (ModSecurity syntax) to block external redirect targets in Kibana URLs
SecRule REQUEST_URI "@rx (?i)(redirect|next|return|returnTo|redirectTo)=(https?%3A|//)" \
    "id:1002401,phase:1,deny,status:400,log,msg:'CVE-2024-23442 Kibana open redirect attempt'"