Elasticsearch vulnerability CVE-2015-4165

[Kevin Kluge <kevin@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Summary:
Elasticsearch versions 1.0.0 - 1.5.2 are vulnerable to an engineered attack on 
other applications on the system.  The snapshot API may be used indirectly to 
place snapshot metadata files into locations that are writeable by the user 
running the Elasticsearch process.  It is possible to create a file that 
another application could read and take action on, such as code execution.

This vulnerability requires several conditions to be exploited.  There must be 
some other application running on the system that would read Lucene files and 
execute code from them.  That application must also be accessible to the 
attacker, e.g. over the network.  Lastly, the Java VM running the Elasticsearch 
process must be able to write into a location that the other application will 
read and potentially execute.

We have been assigned CVE-2015-4165 for this issue.


Fixed versions:
Version 1.6.0 address the vulnerability by adding configuration to limit the 
filesystem paths that the Java VM can write into.


Remediation:
Users should upgrade to the 1.6.0 release.

Users that do not want to upgrade can address the vulnerability in any of 
several ways:
- ensure that there are no other applications running on the Elasticsearch 
server
- ensure that the Elasticsearch JVM cannot write a directory that other 
applications read from
- use a firewall, reverse proxy, or Shield to prevent snapshot API calls from 
some or all users
- ensure that other applications running on the server are not accessible to 
attackers


CVSS
Overall CVSS score: 5.1