CVE-2021-22132 — elasticsearch
MEDIUMCVE-2021-22132 is a medium-severity (CVSS 4.8) CWE-522 vulnerability in org.elasticsearch:elasticsearch. A fix is available for org.elasticsearch:elasticsearch — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Insufficiently Protected Credentials in Elasticsearch
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2021-22132 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 385,386 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.
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
Elasticsearch versions 7.7.0 to 7.10.1 contain an information disclosure flaw in the async search API. Users who execute an async search will improperly store the HTTP headers. An Elasticsearch user with the ability to read the .tasks index could obtain sensitive request headers of other users in the cluster. This issue is fixed in Elasticsearch 7.10.2
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | org.elasticsearch:elasticsearch | ≥ 7.7.0&&< 7.10.2 | 7.10.2org.elasticsearch:elasticsearch:7.10.2 |
Affected Products
elasticsearchelasticcommunications cloud native core automated test suiteoracleDetection & 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 7.10.2 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2021-22132 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Assume what was exposed is already known: rotate any credential, token or key that the affected component could return, restrict the endpoint to callers that genuinely need it, and strip sensitive fields from responses and error output at the boundary rather than relying on the client not to read them.
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.
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| RHAF Camel-K 1.8 | elasticsearch | RHSA-2022:6407 |
| RHINT Camel-Q 2.7 | see advisory | RHSA-2022:5606 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2021-22132 in your dependencies?
Find it across Maven, including transitive dependencies.