A critical security vulnerability, identified as CVE-2025-2135, has been discovered in Kibana, the widely used data visualization and exploration tool for Elasticsearch. This flaw allows attackers to execute arbitrary code remotely by exploiting a heap corruption issue through specially crafted HTML pages. With a maximum CVSSv3.1 score of 9.9, this vulnerability poses a significant threat to organizations utilizing affected versions of Kibana.
Understanding the Vulnerability
The root cause of CVE-2025-2135 lies in a Type Confusion flaw within the Chromium engine that Kibana employs for its PDF and PNG reporting functionalities. Type Confusion vulnerabilities occur when a program allocates or initializes a resource, such as an object or variable, as one type but later accesses it as a different, incompatible type. This mismanagement can lead to unpredictable behavior, including heap corruption—a condition where the program’s memory allocation structures are compromised. In the context of Kibana, an attacker can craft malicious HTML content that, when processed during report generation, triggers this heap corruption, ultimately leading to remote code execution.
Affected Versions and Impact
The vulnerability affects multiple versions of Kibana:
– Kibana 7.x: up to and including 7.17.28
– Kibana 8.0.0 to 8.17.7
– Kibana 8.18.0 to 8.18.2
– Kibana 9.0.0 to 9.0.2
Both self-hosted Kibana instances and Elastic Cloud deployments with PDF or PNG reporting features enabled are vulnerable. Notably, CSV reporting functionality remains unaffected, and Elastic’s serverless projects are not impacted by this issue.
The CVSS vector for this vulnerability is CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H, indicating:
– Attack Vector (AV): Network—The attack can be executed remotely over a network.
– Attack Complexity (AC): Low—The exploit is straightforward without requiring special conditions.
– Privileges Required (PR): Low—Attackers need only minimal privileges to exploit the flaw.
– User Interaction (UI): None—No user interaction is necessary for the attack to succeed.
– Scope (S): Changed—A successful exploit can impact resources beyond the vulnerable component.
– Confidentiality (C), Integrity (I), Availability (A): High—The exploit can lead to significant breaches in data confidentiality, integrity, and system availability.
Mitigation Strategies
To address this critical vulnerability, Elastic has released patched versions of Kibana:
– Kibana 7.17.29
– Kibana 8.17.8
– Kibana 8.18.3
– Kibana 9.0.3
Organizations are strongly advised to upgrade to these versions immediately to mitigate the risk.
For those unable to upgrade promptly, the following temporary mitigation measures can be implemented:
1. Disable Reporting Features: Add the following line to the `kibana.yml` configuration file to disable PDF and PNG reporting functionalities:
“`yaml
xpack.reporting.enabled: false
“`
2. Restrict Report Generation Access: Limit the ability to generate reports to trusted users by configuring role-based access controls appropriately.
3. Implement Network Restrictions: Configure network policies to restrict access to the reporting endpoints, reducing the exposure to potential attacks.
Conclusion
The discovery of CVE-2025-2135 underscores the importance of maintaining up-to-date software and implementing robust security measures. Organizations using Kibana should prioritize upgrading to the patched versions or apply the recommended mitigations to protect their systems from potential exploitation. Regular monitoring and prompt response to security advisories are crucial in safeguarding against emerging threats.
