Kibana Fleet API Key Disclosure via Faulty Observable Filtering
CVE-2026-72632 Published on August 13, 2026
Observable Discrepancy in Kibana Fleet Leading to Disclosure of Elastic Agent Elasticsearch API Keys
Observable Discrepancy (CWE-203) in Kibana Fleet can lead to information disclosure via Excavation (CAPEC-116). Fleet removes the Elasticsearch API key value of an enrolled Elastic Agent from the responses of its agent listing capability, but that capability accepted caller-supplied filter expressions over the stored field that holds the value, and evaluated them with Kibana's own internal Elasticsearch privileges rather than the caller's. Because the number of matching agents is reported back to the caller, the difference between a matching and a non-matching filter formed a side channel from which the full API key value could be reconstructed one character at a time with a short sequence of requests.
Vulnerability Analysis
CVE-2026-72632 is exploitable with network access, and requires small amount of user privileges. This vulnerability is considered to have a low attack complexity. The potential impact of an exploit of this vulnerability is considered to have a high impact on confidentiality, with no impact on integrity, and no impact on availability.
Weakness Type
What is a Side Channel Attack Vulnerability?
The product behaves differently or sends different responses under different circumstances in a way that is observable to an unauthorized actor, which exposes security-relevant information about the state of the product, such as whether a particular operation was successful or not. Discrepancies can take many forms, and variations may be detectable in timing, control flow, communications such as replies or requests, or general behavior. These discrepancies can reveal information about the product's operation or internal state to an unauthorized actor. In some cases, discrepancies can be used by attackers to form a side channel.
CVE-2026-72632 has been classified to as a Side Channel Attack vulnerability or weakness.
Products Associated with CVE-2026-72632
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Affected Versions
Elastic Kibana:- Version 8.19.0, <= 8.19.19 is affected.
- Version 9.0.0, <= 9.4.4 is affected.
- Version 9.5.0 is affected.