# CVE-2018-3823: Cross-site scripting in Elasticsearch X-Pack Machine Learning

> Attackers with ML management permissions can inject malicious scripts into job configurations to steal data or perform actions on behalf of other users.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.4 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** A user has to click or open something
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 19 Sep 2018
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-4q33-p7w3-3rq8

## What is CVE-2018-3823?

CVE-2018-3823 is a medium-severity cross-site scripting vulnerability in Elasticsearch X-Pack Machine Learning, published on 19 Sep 2018. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

### Official description

X-Pack Machine Learning versions before 6.2.4 and 5.6.9 had a cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability. Users with manage_ml permissions could create jobs containing malicious data as part of their configuration that could allow the attacker to obtain sensitive information from or perform destructive actions on behalf of other ML users viewing the results of the jobs.

Weakness: CWE-79 (Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2018-3823?

It affects 3 products.


Products: Elastic Elasticsearch X-Pack, Elastic Kibana X-Pack, Elastic Logstash X-Pack.

## How do I fix CVE-2018-3823?

No fix has been published for CVE-2018-3823 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2018-3823 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-3823 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Elasticsearch X-Pack Machine Learning

- [CVE-2018-3824](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-3824/): Elasticsearch subject to cross site scripting (medium 6.1)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2018-3823 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2018-3823 is a medium-severity cross-site scripting vulnerability in Elasticsearch X-Pack Machine Learning, published on 19 Sep 2018. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2018-3823 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Elasticsearch X-Pack Machine Learning. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-3823/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-3823/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2018-3823
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-3823
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2018-3823

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-3823/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.