CVE-2020-7016 Explained : Impact and Mitigation

Kibana versions before 6.8.11 and 7.8.1 have a denial of service (DoS) vulnerability in Timelion, allowing an attacker to cause high CPU consumption and unresponsiveness.

Understanding CVE-2020-7016

Kibana versions before 6.8.11 and 7.8.1 are affected by a DoS vulnerability in Timelion due to incorrect regular expression handling.

What is CVE-2020-7016?

This CVE refers to a flaw in Kibana versions before 6.8.11 and 7.8.1 that enables attackers to trigger a DoS attack by crafting a malicious URL.

The Impact of CVE-2020-7016

The vulnerability can lead to a significant consumption of CPU resources by the Kibana process, potentially rendering it unresponsive and impacting system availability.

Technical Details of CVE-2020-7016

Kibana's vulnerability in versions before 6.8.11 and 7.8.1 is detailed below:

Vulnerability Description

The flaw allows attackers to exploit Timelion in Kibana, causing a DoS condition by manipulating URLs.

Affected Systems and Versions

Product: Kibana
Vendor: Elastic
Versions Affected: Before 6.8.11 and 7.8.1

Exploitation Mechanism

Attackers can construct URLs that, when accessed by Kibana users, trigger excessive CPU usage, leading to unresponsiveness.

Mitigation and Prevention

To address CVE-2020-7016, consider the following steps:

Immediate Steps to Take

Upgrade Kibana to version 6.8.11 or 7.8.1 to mitigate the vulnerability.
Monitor system resources for unusual CPU consumption.

Long-Term Security Practices

Regularly update Kibana and other software components to patch known vulnerabilities.
Implement network security measures to detect and block malicious traffic.

Patching and Updates

Apply security updates provided by Elastic promptly to protect against potential exploits.