CyberSecBulletin
CVE-2026-72668NVD status: Awaiting Analysis

Kibana: Unintended Proxy or Intermediary

Published Updated By the CyberSecBulletin desk

CVE-2026-72668 is a high-severity unintended proxy or intermediary vulnerability in Kibana from Elastic, with a CVSS 3.1 base score of 7.3 out of 10. It can be exploited remotely over the network by an attacker with a low-privileged account, but only if a user takes part, for example by opening a link or file. Affected Kibana versions: 9.4.0 through 9.4.6. The record does not name a fixed version, so check the vendor advisory. There is no confirmed exploitation so far. EPSS estimates a 0.2% chance of exploitation within 30 days, which is low compared with other CVEs.

Next patch cycle

High severity with no evidence of exploitation so far.

What to do

  1. Check which version of Kibana you run against the affected versions below, and install the vendor's latest release.
  2. Because the attack needs a user to take part, warn users about unexpected links and files related to this product until it is patched.

Affected products and versions

VendorProductAffected versionsFixed in
ElasticKibana9.4.0 through 9.4.6Not stated

Version data comes from the organisation that assigned the CVE. Confirm against the vendor advisory before deciding you are unaffected.

How the severity score breaks down

Attack vector
NetworkCan be exploited remotely over a network, including the internet.
Attack complexity
LowNo special conditions are needed; the attack works reliably.
Privileges required
LowA basic user account is enough.
User interaction
RequiredA user must take an action such as opening a file or link.
Scope
UnchangedImpact stays within the vulnerable component.
Confidentiality
HighAll data handled by the component can be read.
Integrity
HighData or code can be modified at will.
Availability
NoneAvailability is not affected.

Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N. Scored by CNA (elastic.co).

Official description

Unintended Proxy or Intermediary ('Confused Deputy') (CWE-441) in Kibana Agent Builder can lead to privilege escalation. A non-administrative user able to edit a shared agent could cause privileged operations to be carried out under the identity of a higher-privileged user who subsequently interacts with that agent. Where the same user can also author workflows, this can extend to full administrative control of Kibana and of the Elasticsearch cluster.

Source: the CVE record as published by its numbering authority, via NVD and CVE.org.

The underlying weakness: Unintended Proxy or Intermediary

The product receives a request, message, or directive from an upstream component, but the product does not sufficiently preserve the original source of the request before forwarding the request to an external actor that is outside of the product's control sphere.

How developers prevent this class of flaw

  • Enforce the use of strong mutual authentication mechanism between the two parties.
  • Whenever a product is an intermediary or proxy for transactions between two other components, the proxy core should not drop the identity of the initiator of the transaction. The immutability of the identity of the initiator must be maintained and should be forwarded all the way to the target.

More Unintended Proxy or Intermediary vulnerabilities (CWE-441)

Timeline

  1. CVE record published.
  2. CISA published its SSVC assessment (exploitation: none, automatable: no, technical impact: total).
  3. Record last changed materially (score, affected products, status or references).

References

Other vulnerabilities in Kibana

All Kibana vulnerabilities

Recent Unintended Proxy or Intermediary vulnerabilities

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