# CVE-2020-7012: Code injection in Kibana

> An authenticated attacker with write privileges can exploit prototype pollution in the Upgrade Assistant to execute arbitrary code on the host system.

- **Severity:** High 8.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 3 Jun 2020
- **Updated:** 4 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-xrx6-ghw2-jgjm

## What is CVE-2020-7012?

CVE-2020-7012 is a high-severity code injection vulnerability in Elastic Kibana, published on 3 Jun 2020. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Kibana versions 6.7.0 to 6.8.8 and 7.0.0 to 7.6.2 contain a prototype pollution flaw in the Upgrade Assistant. An authenticated attacker with privileges to write to the Kibana index could insert data that would cause Kibana to execute arbitrary code. This could possibly lead to an attacker executing code with the permissions of the Kibana process on the host system.

Weakness: CWE-94 (Improper Control of Generation of Code)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-7012?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Elastic Kibana.

## How do I fix CVE-2020-7012?

No fix has been published for CVE-2020-7012 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2020-7012 being exploited?

It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2020-7012 exists.

Public exploit code:

- Kibana Upgrade Assistant Telemetry Collector Prototype Pollution (metasploit)

## Other vulnerabilities in Elastic Kibana

- [CVE-2019-7609](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-7609/): Kibana Arbitrary Code Execution (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2025-25015](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-25015/): Kibana arbitrary code execution via prototype pollution (critical 9.9)
- [CVE-2024-37288](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-37288/): Deserialization in Kibana (critical 9.9)
- [CVE-2023-31415](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-31415/): Code injection in Kibana (critical 9.9)
- [CVE-2018-17245](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-17245/): Information disclosure in Kibana (critical 9.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2020-7012 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2020-7012 is a high-severity code injection vulnerability in Elastic Kibana, published on 3 Jun 2020. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2020-7012 exists.

Affected product: Elastic Kibana. 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-2020-7012/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-7012/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2020-7012
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-7012
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2020-7012

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-7012/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.