Data access and alteration via cross-realm identity collision
Published Sep 1, 2026 · Updated Sep 1, 2026
Incorrect authorization in affected Kibana releases allows remote authenticated users to read, modify, or delete private AI Assistant data. The Elastic AI Assistant Knowledge Base authorization path identifies owners by username without preserving the authentication realm, causing distinct principals with the same username to be treated as one owner. Exploitation requires principals in separate realms with the same username and roles granting AI Assistant access; single-realm deployments are unaffected.
Summary
What happened
Incorrect authorization in affected Kibana releases allows remote authenticated users to read, modify, or delete private AI Assistant data. The Elastic AI Assistant Knowledge Base authorization path identifies owners by username without preserving the authentication realm, causing distinct principals with the same username to be treated as one owner. Exploitation requires principals in separate realms with the same username and roles granting AI Assistant access; single-realm deployments are unaffected.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-78606
- Published
- Sep 1, 2026
- Updated
- Sep 1, 2026
- Vendor
- Elastic
- Product
- Kibana
- Classifications
- CWE-863, CAPEC-1, T1565, T1213
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Sep 1, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Sep 1, 2026Record 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.
- Affected versionversion=8.19.11 <=8.19.20
- Affected versionversion=9.3.0 <=9.4.5
- Affected versionversion=9.5.0 <=9.5.1
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
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.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
No public exploit references are available in this record.
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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