CVE-2025-25018 is a stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability classified under CWE-79 that affects Elastic Kibana versions 7.0.0, 8.0.0, 8.19.0, 9.0.0, and 9.1.0. The vulnerability stems from improper neutralization of user-supplied input during the generation of web pages within Kibana, allowing malicious scripts to be stored and executed when other users access the affected pages. The attack vector requires network access with low privileges (PR:L) and user interaction (UI:R), indicating that an attacker must have some authenticated access and trick a user into triggering the malicious payload. The vulnerability impacts confidentiality and integrity severely (C:H/I:H) but does not affect availability (A:N). The scope is changed (S:C), meaning the vulnerability can affect resources beyond the vulnerable component, potentially impacting other users or systems relying on Kibana dashboards. While no exploits are currently known in the wild, the vulnerability's characteristics and the widespread use of Kibana in enterprise environments make it a critical concern. The lack of available patches at the time of publication necessitates immediate mitigation efforts. Kibana is widely used for data visualization and monitoring in Elastic Stack deployments, often in security operations centers and critical infrastructure monitoring, increasing the potential impact of this vulnerability if exploited.

For European organizations, this vulnerability poses a significant risk to the confidentiality and integrity of sensitive data visualized and managed through Kibana dashboards. Successful exploitation could allow attackers to execute arbitrary scripts in the context of other users, potentially leading to credential theft, session hijacking, or manipulation of displayed data. This can undermine trust in monitoring and analytics platforms, disrupt incident response efforts, and expose sensitive operational or business intelligence data. Given Kibana's role in security monitoring and operational dashboards, exploitation could also facilitate further lateral movement or escalation within networks. Organizations in sectors such as finance, energy, telecommunications, and government—where Elastic Stack adoption is high—are particularly vulnerable. The absence of known exploits in the wild provides a window for proactive defense, but the high CVSS score and broad affected versions indicate a pressing need for action to prevent future attacks.

1. Immediately review and restrict user privileges in Kibana to the minimum necessary, limiting the ability to input or modify dashboard content. 2. Implement strict input validation and sanitization on all user-supplied data before it is rendered in Kibana dashboards, using custom scripts or proxy filtering if native patches are unavailable. 3. Apply Content Security Policy (CSP) headers to Kibana web interfaces to restrict the execution of unauthorized scripts. 4. Monitor Kibana logs and user activity for unusual behavior or attempts to inject scripts. 5. Isolate Kibana instances from untrusted networks and enforce strong authentication and session management controls. 6. Stay updated with Elastic's security advisories and apply official patches as soon as they are released. 7. Consider deploying Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) with rules tailored to detect and block XSS payloads targeting Kibana. 8. Educate users about the risks of clicking on suspicious links or interacting with untrusted Kibana dashboards until the vulnerability is remediated.