CVE-2025-68389
📋 TL;DR
This vulnerability allows authenticated Kibana users with low privileges to send crafted HTTP requests that cause excessive resource allocation, leading to denial of service. It affects Kibana instances where users can authenticate and send requests to vulnerable endpoints.
💻 Affected Systems
- Kibana
📦 What is this software?
Kibana by Elastic
Kibana by Elastic
Kibana by Elastic
Kibana by Elastic
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Complete Kibana service disruption affecting all users, potentially requiring process restart and causing extended downtime.
Likely Case
Temporary service degradation or unavailability for some users until resource allocation normalizes or process restarts.
If Mitigated
Minimal impact with proper resource limits, monitoring, and authentication controls in place.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires authenticated access but is straightforward once authenticated.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: 8.19.9, 9.1.9, or 9.2.3
Vendor Advisory: https://discuss.elastic.co/t/kibana-8-19-9-9-1-9-and-9-2-3-security-update-esa-2025-36/384184
Restart Required: Yes
Instructions:
1. Identify your Kibana version. 2. Download and install the appropriate patched version (8.19.9, 9.1.9, or 9.2.3). 3. Restart the Kibana service. 4. Verify the update was successful.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Implement Rate Limiting
allConfigure rate limiting on Kibana endpoints to prevent excessive requests from single users.
# Configure via Kibana.yml or reverse proxy settings
# Example nginx rate limiting: limit_req_zone $binary_remote_addr zone=kibana:10m rate=10r/s;
Restrict User Privileges
allReview and minimize authenticated user permissions to reduce attack surface.
# Review Kibana role-based access control settings
# Use minimal privilege principle for all user roles
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement strict network segmentation to isolate Kibana from untrusted networks.
- Deploy monitoring and alerting for abnormal resource usage patterns in Kibana.
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check Kibana version via web interface or command line; versions before 8.19.9, 9.1.9, or 9.2.3 are vulnerable.Check Version:
curl -X GET 'http://localhost:5601/api/status' | grep numberVerify Fix Applied:
Confirm Kibana version is 8.19.9, 9.1.9, or 9.2.3 or later after patching.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unusually high memory or CPU usage logs from Kibana process
- Multiple HTTP requests from single authenticated user in short timeframes
Network Indicators:
- Spike in HTTP traffic to Kibana endpoints from authenticated sources
SIEM Query:
source="kibana.log" AND ("high memory" OR "excessive allocation" OR "DoS")