Improper privilege management in Elasticsearch
Priority LOW 32CWE-270Published · Updated
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- Privilege escalation
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- High · None · None
- Fix status
- Fixed
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · NVD. Fix status from CNA and GitHub. Impact type from CWE-269.
Summary
In Elasticsearch before 7.9.0 and 6.8.12 a field disclosure flaw was found when running a scrolling search with Field Level Security. If a user runs the same query another more privileged user recently ran, the scrolling search can leak fields that should be hidden. This could result in an attacker gaining additional permissions against a restricted index.
Why it matters now
EPSS 0.01404 72nd percentileScored 2026-11-07
Fix Fixed Elasticsearch (Elastic): 7.9.0org.elasticsearch:elasticsearch (Maven): 7.9.0, 6.8.12
SSVC decision points
Not available: CISA has not published SSVC decision points for this record.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elastic | Elasticsearch | before 7.9.0 | 7.9.0 | Patch available | CNA |
| — | org.elasticsearch:elasticsearch (Maven) | 7.0.0 to before 7.9.0 | 7.9.0 | Patch available | GHSA-c77j-p484-h84m |
| — | org.elasticsearch:elasticsearch (Maven) | before 6.8.12 | 6.8.12 | Patch available | GHSA-c77j-p484-h84m |
- Elasticsearch VendorElastic Affected before 7.9.0 Fixed in 7.9.0 Patch available CNA
- org.elasticsearch:elasticsearch (Maven) Vendor— Affected 7.0.0 to before 7.9.0 Fixed in 7.9.0 Patch available GHSA-c77j-p484-h84m
- org.elasticsearch:elasticsearch (Maven) Vendor— Affected before 6.8.12 Fixed in 6.8.12 Patch available GHSA-c77j-p484-h84m
Remediation
- Fix · CNA Elasticsearch (Elastic) Fixed in 7.9.0
- Fix · GHSA-c77j-p484-h84m org.elasticsearch:elasticsearch (Maven) Fixed in 7.9.0 Advisory →
- Fix · GHSA-c77j-p484-h84m org.elasticsearch:elasticsearch (Maven) Fixed in 6.8.12 Advisory →
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Low. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
Not affected: 6 products
- Red Hat Decision Manager 7
- Red Hat Fuse 7
- Red Hat JBoss Fuse 6
- Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 3.11
- Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4
- Red Hat Process Automation 7
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2020-7019
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-c77j-p484-h84m
References
More Elasticsearch vulnerabilities
- TI-2015-01295 The Groovy scripting engine in Elasticsearch before 1.3.8 and 1.4.x before 1.4.3 allows… KEVCVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
- TI-2014-02491 The default configuration in Elasticsearch before 1.2 enables dynamic scripting, which… KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.1
- TI-2023-15037 Elasticsearch StackOverflow vulnerability CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.5
- TI-2021-05135 Information disclosure in Elasticsearch CVSS 3.1MEDIUM 6.5
- TI-2021-05136 All versions of Elastic Cloud Enterprise has the Elasticsearch “anonymous” user enabled… CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.5
- TI-2015-04530 Elasticsearch before 1.6.1 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via… CVSS 3.0CRITICAL 9.8
Sources
- CVE-2020-7019 · CVE Program
- CVE-2020-7019 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-c77j-p484-h84m · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2020-7019 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. Sources and licences