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MEDIUM severity

CVE-2022-23708 — elasticsearch

MEDIUM

CVE-2022-23708 is a medium-severity (CVSS 4.3) CWE-264 vulnerability in org.elasticsearch:elasticsearch. A fix is available for org.elasticsearch:elasticsearch — see the affected versions and patch details below.

Elasticsearch privilege escalation

Also known asBIT-elasticsearch-2022-23708GHSA-pgq6-ccqj-hpqr
Published
Updated
Affected
1 pkg
Patched
1 / 1
Exploits
None indexed
Exploitation data as of Oct 11, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, FIRST.org (EPSS)

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗
1.0%probability of exploitation in next 30 days
Lower Risk+0.11%
Lower risk than most CVEs63th percentile — riskier than 63% of all scored CVEsHighest risk
0.00%0.51%1.02%1.53%0.2%1.0%Apr 26Aug 26Oct 26

Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.

How urgent is this, really

CVE-2022-23708 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.

Where this sits among everything scored

Of 385,738 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.

Real-World Exposure

1 pkg affected
☕org.elasticsearch:elasticsearch

Real-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 flaw was discovered in Elasticsearch 7.17.0’s upgrade assistant, in which upgrading from version 6.x to 7.x would disable the in-built protections on the security index, allowing authenticated users with “*” index permissions access to this index. Users running a cluster on an affected version that had previously been upgraded from 6.x, should upgrade to 7.17.1. Users that are planning to upgrade from 6.x should not perform an upgrade from 6.x to versions 7.16 through 7.17.0 and should use 7.17.1+ for upgrades from 6.x.

Affected Packages

1 total 1 fixed
EcosystemPackageVulnerable rangeFix
☕Mavenorg.elasticsearch:elasticsearch≥ 7.16.0&&< 7.17.17.17.1org.elasticsearch:elasticsearch:7.17.1

Affected Products

1 product · 1 configurations
Application
elasticsearchelastic
≥ 7.16.0 && < 7.17.1
range

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

  1. Detect

    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.

  2. Fix

    Update org.elasticsearch:elasticsearch to 7.17.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2022-23708 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

  3. 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.

Frequently Asked Questions

A flaw was discovered in Elasticsearch 7.17.0’s upgrade assistant, in which upgrading from version 6.x to 7.x would disable the in-built protections on the security index, allowing authenticated users with “*” index permissions access to this index. Users running a cluster on an affected version that had previously been upgraded from 6.x, should upgrade to 7.17.1. Users that are planning to upgrade from 6.x should not perform an upgrade from 6.x to versions 7.16 through 7.17.0 and should use 7.17.1+ for upgrades from 6.x.
O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

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CVE-2022-23708: elasticsearch — Fixed in 7.17.1