CVE-2020-7014 Privilege Escalation Flaw in Elasticsearch
An attacker with API key creation rights can escalate privileges by generating an authentication token with elevated permissions in Elasticsearch.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Any signed-in user
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2020-7014?
CVE-2020-7014 is a high-severity vulnerability in Elastic Elasticsearch, published on 3 Jun 2020. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
The fix for CVE-2020-7009 was found to be incomplete. Elasticsearch versions from 6.7.0 to 6.8.7 and 7.0.0 to 7.6.1 contain a privilege escalation flaw if an attacker is able to create API keys and also authentication tokens. An attacker who is able to generate an API key and an authentication token can perform a series of steps that result in an authentication token being generated with elevated privileges.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2020-7014?
5 open source packages ship an affected version, including org.elasticsearch:elasticsearch and elasticsearch. It affects 1 product.
| Package | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
org.elasticsearch:elasticsearch Maven | From 6.7.0 | 6.8.8 |
org.elasticsearch:elasticsearch Maven | From 6.7.0 | 6.8.8 |
org.elasticsearch:elasticsearch Maven | From 7.0.0 | 7.6.2 |
org.elasticsearch:elasticsearch Maven | From 7.0.0 | 7.6.2 |
elasticsearch Bitnami | From 6.7.0 | 6.8.8, 7.6.2 |
Products include Elastic Elasticsearch.
How do I fix CVE-2020-7014?
Upgrade org.elasticsearch:elasticsearch to a fixed version for your release line: 6.8.8 or 7.6.2.
Is CVE-2020-7014 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2020-7014 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Elastic Elasticsearch
- CVE-2015-1427 Elasticsearch Groovy Scripting Engine Remote Code Execution
- CVE-2014-3120 Elasticsearch Remote Code Execution
- CVE-2015-5377 Code injection in n/a
- CVE-2026-72649 Deserialization of Untrusted Data in Elasticsearch Leading to Remote Code Execution
- CVE-2026-72642 Use of Out-of-range Pointer Offset in the Elasticsearch Machine Learning Native Inference Process
Sources
Also known as BIT-elasticsearch-2020-7014, GHSA-hqqv-9x3v-mp7w, UBUNTU-CVE-2020-7014.