CVE-2022-23708Network attack vector

Privilege escalation via disabled security-index protections

Published Mar 3, 2022 · Updated Aug 3, 2024

Privilege escalation in Elastic Elasticsearch 7.16.0 through 7.17.0 allows remote authenticated users to access the security index. The upgrade assistant disables built-in protections on the security index when a cluster is upgraded from 6.x to an affected 7.x release. The cluster must follow that upgrade path, and the user must hold wildcard index permissions, enabling unauthorized reading or modification of security-index data.

CVSS severity6.8
Medium
EPSS probability0.92%
Next 30 days · Sep 16, 2026
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Based on sourced intelligence
Hinoki checkNot available
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Summary

What happened

Privilege escalation in Elastic Elasticsearch 7.16.0 through 7.17.0 allows remote authenticated users to access the security index. The upgrade assistant disables built-in protections on the security index when a cluster is upgraded from 6.x to an affected 7.x release. The cluster must follow that upgrade path, and the user must hold wildcard index permissions, enabling unauthorized reading or modification of security-index data.

The record

CVE
CVE-2022-23708
Published
Mar 3, 2022
Updated
Aug 3, 2024
Vendor
Elastic
Product
Elasticsearch
Classifications
CWE-264, CWE-269
Attack vector
network
Privileges
authenticated

Timeline

How it unfolded

  1. Mar 3, 2022CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
  2. Aug 3, 2024Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.

Exploitability

Present is not the same as exploitable

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Is a vulnerable build present?

Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.

  1. Affected versionversion=Versions 7.16.0 through 7.17.0

What conditions does exploitation require?

Attack vectornetwork
Required privilegesauthenticated

What is affected?

Elastic · Elasticsearchversion=Versions 7.16.0 through 7.17.0

Published CVSS scores

4.0NIST NVDAV:N/AC:L/Au:S/C:P/I:N/A:N
6.8ElasticCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
4.3NIST NVDCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N

CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.

Attacks

What attackers are doing with it

Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.

Daily unique IPsNo honeypot observations are available for this CVE in the selected window.

No observations available

Sep 10, 2026Sep 16, 2026
Latest reporting daySep 16, 2026
Latest daily unique IPsUnavailable
Prior 30-day averageUnavailable
SourceShadowserver honeypots (KEV)
Vectornetwork
Privilegesauthenticated
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Public exploitUnconfirmed

Weakness, pattern, technique

CWE-264Permissions, Privileges, and Access Controls
CWE-269Improper Privilege Management

Public exploit references

No public exploit references are available in this record.

Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.

Technologies

Your stack

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Your stack

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