CVE-2026-72632: CWE-203 Observable Discrepancy in Elastic Kibana
Observable Discrepancy (CWE-203) in Kibana Fleet can lead to information disclosure via Excavation (CAPEC-116). Fleet removes the Elasticsearch API key value of an enrolled Elastic Agent from the responses of its agent listing capability, but that capability accepted caller-supplied filter expressions over the stored field that holds the value, and evaluated them with Kibana's own internal Elasticsearch privileges rather than the caller's. Because the number of matching agents is reported back to the caller, the difference between a matching and a non-matching filter formed a side channel from which the full API key value could be reconstructed one character at a time with a short sequence of requests.
AI Analysis
Technical Summary
The vulnerability (CWE-203) in Kibana Fleet involves the agent listing feature that removes the Elasticsearch API key from responses but accepts filter expressions over the stored API key field. These filters are evaluated with Kibana's internal Elasticsearch privileges rather than the caller's, enabling an attacker to infer the API key value one character at a time by observing differences in the count of matching agents. This side channel leakage leads to information disclosure via Excavation (CAPEC-116).
Potential Impact
An attacker with low privileges can use this side channel to reconstruct the full API key of an enrolled Elastic Agent, resulting in high confidentiality impact due to unauthorized disclosure of sensitive credentials. Integrity impact is low, and availability is not affected.
Mitigation Recommendations
Patch status is not yet confirmed — check the vendor advisory for current remediation guidance. No official fix or temporary workaround is currently documented. Until a fix is available, restrict access to the Kibana Fleet agent listing capability to trusted users only.
CVE-2026-72632: CWE-203 Observable Discrepancy in Elastic Kibana
Description
Observable Discrepancy (CWE-203) in Kibana Fleet can lead to information disclosure via Excavation (CAPEC-116). Fleet removes the Elasticsearch API key value of an enrolled Elastic Agent from the responses of its agent listing capability, but that capability accepted caller-supplied filter expressions over the stored field that holds the value, and evaluated them with Kibana's own internal Elasticsearch privileges rather than the caller's. Because the number of matching agents is reported back to the caller, the difference between a matching and a non-matching filter formed a side channel from which the full API key value could be reconstructed one character at a time with a short sequence of requests.
CVSS v3.1
Score 7.1high
Affected software
Weaknesses
AI-Powered Analysis
Machine-generated threat intelligence
Technical Analysis
The vulnerability (CWE-203) in Kibana Fleet involves the agent listing feature that removes the Elasticsearch API key from responses but accepts filter expressions over the stored API key field. These filters are evaluated with Kibana's internal Elasticsearch privileges rather than the caller's, enabling an attacker to infer the API key value one character at a time by observing differences in the count of matching agents. This side channel leakage leads to information disclosure via Excavation (CAPEC-116).
Potential Impact
An attacker with low privileges can use this side channel to reconstruct the full API key of an enrolled Elastic Agent, resulting in high confidentiality impact due to unauthorized disclosure of sensitive credentials. Integrity impact is low, and availability is not affected.
Mitigation Recommendations
Patch status is not yet confirmed — check the vendor advisory for current remediation guidance. No official fix or temporary workaround is currently documented. Until a fix is available, restrict access to the Kibana Fleet agent listing capability to trusted users only.
Technical Details
- Data Version
- 5.2
- Assigner Short Name
- elastic
- Date Reserved
- 2026-08-10T11:17:29.887Z
- Cvss Version
- 3.1
- State
- PUBLISHED
- Remediation Level
- null
Threat ID: 6a7e1a7fbf8831d539b180e9
Added to database: 08/13/2026, 19:26:55 UTC
Last enriched: 08/13/2026, 19:56:14 UTC
Last updated: 08/13/2026, 20:41:59 UTC
Views: 2
Community Reviews
0 reviewsCrowdsource mitigation strategies, share intel context, and vote on the most helpful responses. Sign in to add your voice and help keep defenders ahead.
Want to contribute mitigation steps or threat intel context? Sign in or create an account to join the community discussion.
Actions
Updates to AI analysis require Pro Console access. Upgrade inside Console → Billing.
External Links
Need more coverage?
Upgrade to Pro Console for AI refresh and higher limits.
For incident response and remediation, OffSeq services can help resolve threats faster.
Latest Threats
Check if your credentials are on the dark web
Instant breach scanning across billions of leaked records. Free tier available.