CVE-2019-7611 — elasticsearch
HIGHCVE-2019-7611 is a high-severity (CVSS 8.1) CWE-284 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
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2019-7611 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 378,156 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
org.elasticsearch:elasticsearch☕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
A permission issue was found in Elasticsearch versions before 5.6.15 and 6.6.1 when Field Level Security and Document Level Security are disabled and the _aliases, _shrink, or _split endpoints are used . If the elasticsearch.yml file has xpack.security.dls_fls.enabled set to false, certain permission checks are skipped when users perform one of the actions mentioned above, to make existing data available under a new index/alias name. This could result in an attacker gaining additional permissions against a restricted index.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | org.elasticsearch:elasticsearch | all versions | 5.6.15org.elasticsearch:elasticsearch:5.6.15 |
| ☕Maven | org.elasticsearch:elasticsearch | ≥ 6.0.0&&< 6.6.1 | 6.6.1org.elasticsearch:elasticsearch:6.6.1 |
Detection & 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 5.6.15 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2019-7611 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.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2019-7611 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2019-7611. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
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.
Red Hat OpenStack Platform 8.0/9.0 Operational Tools Kibana/Elasticsearch versions do not include nor support X-Pack (8/9 versions must use the optional Shield, also not packaged); not affected. OpenShift Container Platform (OCP) does not include X-Pack with Elasticsearch, which prevents this vulnerability from being…
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Decision Manager 7 | elasticsearch | RHSA-2020:0899 |
| Red Hat Process Automation 7 | elasticsearch | RHSA-2020:0895 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2019-7611 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2019-7611 across Maven dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.