Elasticsearch 9.0.x < 9.4.7 / 9.5.x < 9.5.4 Privilege Escalation (ESA-2026-197)

high Nessus Plugin ID 363429

Synopsis

The remote host is missing a security update.

Description

The version of Elasticsearch installed on the remote host is 9.0.x prior to 9.4.7, or 9.5.x prior to 9.5.4. It is, therefore, affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the ESA-2026-197 advisory.

- Incorrect Authorization (CWE-863) in Elasticsearch can lead to Privilege Escalation via a delegated administrative privilege whose scope is not fully enforced during authorization checks. Elasticsearch contains an incorrect authorization weakness in a configurable, non-default privilege that lets an administrator delegate limited role-management capability to another user, scoped to specific indices. The authorization check that enforces this scoping does not correctly account for a role-definition setting that can expand the matched index set. A user holding this delegated privilege with a broadly-scoped index pattern can exploit this inconsistency by updating their own assigned role to gain access to indices that should remain restricted, including internal security data. This can enable further escalation up to full administrative control of the cluster. (CVE-2026-103007)

Note that Nessus has not tested for this issue but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

Solution

Upgrade to Elasticsearch version 9.4.7, or 9.5.4 or later as appropriate for your release branch.

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 363429

File Name: elasticsearch_esa_2026_197.nasl

Version: 1.1

Type: Combined

Agent: unix

Family: Misc.

Published: 10/6/2026

Updated: 10/6/2026

Configuration: Enable thorough checks (optional)

Supported Sensors: Nessus Agent, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 6.9

Percentile: 96.51

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 8.3

Temporal Score: 6.1

Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:M/C:C/I:C/A:C

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2026-103007

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.2

Temporal Score: 6.3

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:O/RC:C

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/a:elastic:elasticsearch, cpe:/a:elasticsearch:elasticsearch

Required KB Items: installed_sw/Elasticsearch

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 10/6/2026

Vulnerability Publication Date: 10/6/2026

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2026-103007

Detections

Analytics