CVE-2015-4165 — elasticsearch
HIGHCVE-2015-4165 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) CWE-264 vulnerability in org.elasticsearch:elasticsearch. A fix is available for org.elasticsearch:elasticsearch — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Improper Access Control in Elasticsearch
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
Where this sits among everything scored
Real-World Exposure
org.elasticsearch:elasticsearchReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Maven packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
The snapshot API in Elasticsearch before 1.6.0 when another application exists on the system that can read Lucene files and execute code from them, is accessible by the attacker, and the Java VM on which Elasticsearch is running can write to a location that the other application can read and execute from, allows remote authenticated users to write to and create arbitrary snapshot metadata files, and potentially execute arbitrary code.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | org.elasticsearch:elasticsearch | all versions | 1.6.0org.elasticsearch:elasticsearch:1.6.0 |
Affected Products
elasticsearchelasticsearchDetection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for org.elasticsearch:elasticsearch, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update org.elasticsearch:elasticsearch to 1.6.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2015-4165 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
This issue affects the versions of elasticsearch as shipped with Red Hat Satellite 6.x and Subscription Asset Manager 1.x. Red Hat Product Security has rated this issue as having Low security impact. A future update may address this issue. For additional information, refer to the Issue Severity Classification:…
For Satellite 6.x and Sam 1.x you can simply firewall elasticsearch to trusted users only (e.g. root, katello, foreman). For instructions on this please see: https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Satellite/6.0/html-single/Installation_Guide/index.html#sect-Red_Hat_Satellite-Installation_Guide-Red_Hat_Satellite_Installation-Configuring_Red_Hat_Satellite_ManuallySource: Red Hat security advisory for CVE-2015-4165 (CC BY 4.0)
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2015-4165 in your dependencies?
Find it across Maven, including transitive dependencies.