CVE-2025-37732 is a Cross-site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability classified under CWE-79 that affects Elastic Kibana versions 7.0.0 through 9.2.0. The vulnerability arises from improper neutralization of input during web page generation, specifically within the integration package upload functionality. An authenticated user can exploit this flaw to inject malicious HTML tags that are rendered in the browser of other users interacting with Kibana. This vulnerability is a bypass of a previous fix (ESA-2025-17, CVE-2025-25018), indicating that the earlier patch was insufficient to fully sanitize inputs. The CVSS 3.1 base score is 5.4, reflecting a medium severity with the vector AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N, meaning the attack can be performed remotely over the network with low complexity, requires privileges to authenticate, and user interaction is needed. The impact includes limited confidentiality and integrity loss, such as session hijacking or unauthorized script execution within the Kibana interface, but no direct availability impact. No public exploits are known at this time, but the vulnerability could be leveraged in targeted attacks against organizations relying on Kibana for monitoring and visualization of critical data. The scope is limited to authenticated users, but the vulnerability affects multiple major Kibana versions, indicating a broad potential attack surface.

For European organizations, the impact of CVE-2025-37732 can be significant, especially for those heavily reliant on Elastic Stack components like Kibana for operational intelligence, security monitoring, and data visualization. Successful exploitation could allow attackers to execute malicious scripts in the context of other users’ browsers, potentially leading to session hijacking, theft of sensitive information displayed in Kibana dashboards, or manipulation of visualized data. This could undermine trust in monitoring data and lead to incorrect operational decisions. Confidentiality and integrity are primarily affected, with no direct availability impact. Organizations in regulated sectors such as finance, healthcare, and critical infrastructure may face compliance risks if sensitive data is exposed or manipulated. The requirement for authentication limits exposure but insider threats or compromised credentials could facilitate exploitation. The absence of known exploits reduces immediate risk but does not eliminate the threat, especially as attackers may develop exploits over time.

To mitigate CVE-2025-37732, European organizations should: 1) Immediately apply any patches or updates released by Elastic addressing this vulnerability once available. 2) Until patches are deployed, restrict the ability to upload integration packages to only highly trusted administrators to reduce the attack surface. 3) Implement strict input validation and sanitization on the server side for any user-supplied content related to integration packages. 4) Monitor Kibana logs and user activity for unusual or unauthorized package uploads and anomalous behavior indicative of exploitation attempts. 5) Educate users about the risks of interacting with suspicious Kibana content and enforce strong authentication mechanisms to reduce the risk of credential compromise. 6) Consider deploying Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) with rules designed to detect and block XSS payloads targeting Kibana interfaces. 7) Review and limit user privileges within Kibana to the minimum necessary to reduce the potential impact of compromised accounts. 8) Conduct regular security assessments and penetration tests focusing on Kibana and Elastic Stack components to identify and remediate similar vulnerabilities proactively.