CVE-2024-12556VulnerabilityPublished 8 Apr 2025Updated 26 Feb 2026

CVE-2024-12556: Elastic Kibana · Prototype Pollution

Affects Elastic KibanaSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 8.7 High.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 06:26 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

8.7High

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.5% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 45% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: Low
User Interaction: Required
Scope: Changed
Confidentiality: High
Integrity: High
Availability: None

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed 'remotely exploitable' and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: Low: The attacker is authorized with (i.e., requires) privileges that provide basic user capabilities that could normally affect only settings and files owned by a user. Alternatively, an attacker with Low privileges may have the ability to cause an impact only to non-sensitive resources.
User Interaction: Required: Successful exploitation of this vulnerability requires a user to take some action before the vulnerability can be exploited.
Scope: Changed: An exploited vulnerability can affect resources beyond the security scope managed by the security authority of the vulnerable component. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are different and managed by different security authorities.
Confidentiality: High: There is total loss of confidentiality, resulting in all resources within the impacted component being divulged to the attacker. Alternatively, access to only some restricted information is obtained, but the disclosed information presents a direct, serious impact.
Integrity: High: There is a total loss of integrity, or a complete loss of protection. For example, the attacker is able to modify any/all files protected by the impacted component. Alternatively, only some files can be modified, but malicious modification would present a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component.
Availability: None: There is no impact to availability within the impacted component.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 8 Apr 2025
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 2026-10-26.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
Elastic Kibana	Affected =8.16.1	Fixed in–

AI-suggested

To mitigate CVE-2024-12556, organizations should immediately upgrade Kibana to a version where this vulnerability is patched once available. Until a patch is released, restrict file upload functionality to trusted users only and implement strict validation and sanitization of uploaded files to prevent path traversal and code injection. Employ network segmentation and least privilege principles to limit the impact of a potential compromise. Monitor Kibana logs and network traffic for unusual file upload activities or unauthorized access attempts. Use Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) to detect and block exploitation attempts targeting file upload endpoints. Additionally, conduct regular security assessments and penetration testing focusing on file upload mechanisms and prototype pollution vectors. Educate privileged users about the risks of interacting with untrusted content or performing risky actions that could trigger exploitation.

Description

Prototype Pollution in Kibana can lead to code injection via unrestricted file upload combined with path traversal.

Impact

The exploitation of CVE-2024-12556 can lead to severe consequences for organizations using Kibana 8.16.1. Attackers can achieve remote code execution by leveraging prototype pollution combined with unrestricted file upload and path traversal, compromising the confidentiality and integrity of data visualized and managed through Kibana. This can result in unauthorized access to sensitive information, manipulation of monitoring data, and potential lateral movement within the network. Although availability is not directly affected, the loss of trust in monitoring data and potential data breaches can disrupt business operations and incident response capabilities. Organizations in sectors such as finance, healthcare, government, and critical infrastructure that rely heavily on Elastic Stack for real-time analytics and security monitoring are particularly at risk. The vulnerability's ease of exploitation and high impact make it a significant threat to global organizations.

CWE-1321Improperly Controlled Modification of Object Prototype Attributes ('Prototype Pollution') (opens in a new tab)
Variant weakness
The product receives input from an upstream component that specifies attributes that are to be initialized or updated in an object, but it does not properly control modifications of attributes of the object prototype.
Implementation
By freezing the object prototype first (for example, Object.freeze(Object.prototype)), modification of the prototype becomes impossible.
Architecture and Design
By blocking modifications of attributes that resolve to object prototype, such as proto or prototype, this weakness can be mitigated.
Implementation · Input Validation
When handling untrusted objects, validating using a schema can be used.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
Mass Assignment (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V5.1.2 (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
Accessing Functionality Not Properly Constrained by ACLs (opens in a new tab)
Exploiting Incorrectly Configured Access Control Security Levels (opens in a new tab)
Manipulating User-Controlled Variables (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

discuss.elastic.co/t/kibana-8-16-4-and-8-17-2-security-update-esa-2025-02/376918 (opens in a new tab)

Community reviews

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 26 Feb 2026, 19:42 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-1321

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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