Vulnerability-Lookup

CVE-2026-72648 (GCVE-0-2026-72648)

Vulnerability from cvelistv5 – Published: 2026-08-13 19:13 – Updated: 2026-08-13 20:29

Title

Cleartext Storage of Sensitive Information in an Environment Variable in Elastic Cloud on Kubernetes Leading to Information Disclosure

Summary

Cleartext Storage of Sensitive Information in an Environment Variable (CWE-526) in Elastic Cloud on Kubernetes (ECK) can lead to information disclosure via Retrieve Embedded Sensitive Data (CAPEC-37). When ECK reconciles a Fleet Server resource that authenticates to Elasticsearch with a service account token, the token is written into the generated workload specification in cleartext rather than being referenced from the Kubernetes Secret that ECK maintains for the other credentials on the same path. Any principal able to read workload specifications in the affected namespace can therefore read a live Elasticsearch credential, even when Kubernetes RBAC does not grant that principal access to Secrets.

Severity

6.5 (Medium)


                        
                          CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N

SSVC

Exploitation: none Automatable: no Technical Impact: partial

CISA Coordinator · CISA-ADP (v2.0.3)

Decision recorded 2026-08-13 19:50 UTC

CWE

CWE-526 - Cleartext Storage of Sensitive Information in an Environment Variable

Assigner

elastic mitre root

References

1 reference

URL	Tags
https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elastic-cloud-on-kub…

Impacted products

1 product

Vendor	Product	Version	CPE status
Elastic	Eck Operator	Affected: 3.0.0 , ≤ 3.4.1 (semver)	guessed

Show details on NVD website

JSON

To clipboard

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FKIE_CVE-2026-72648

Vulnerability from fkie_nvd - Published: 2026-08-13 20:17 - Updated: 2026-08-13 21:18

Severity

6.5 (Medium) - CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N

Summary

References

	URL	Tags
	security@elastic.co	https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elastic-cloud-on-kubernetes-3-5-0-security-update-esa-2026-113/389493

Impacted products

	Vendor	Product	Version

JSON

To clipboard

{
  "affected": [
    {
      "affectedData": [
        {
          "defaultStatus": "unaffected",
          "product": "Eck Operator",
          "vendor": "Elastic",
          "versions": [
            {
              "lessThanOrEqual": "3.4.1",
              "status": "affected",
              "version": "3.0.0",
              "versionType": "semver"
            }
          ]
        }
      ],
      "source": "security@elastic.co"
    }
  ],
  "cveTags": [],
  "descriptions": [
    {
      "lang": "en",
      "value": "Cleartext Storage of Sensitive Information in an Environment Variable (CWE-526) in Elastic Cloud on Kubernetes (ECK) can lead to information disclosure via Retrieve Embedded Sensitive Data (CAPEC-37). When ECK reconciles a Fleet Server resource that authenticates to Elasticsearch with a service account token, the token is written into the generated workload specification in cleartext rather than being referenced from the Kubernetes Secret that ECK maintains for the other credentials on the same path. Any principal able to read workload specifications in the affected namespace can therefore read a live Elasticsearch credential, even when Kubernetes RBAC does not grant that principal access to Secrets."
    }
  ],
  "id": "CVE-2026-72648",
  "lastModified": "2026-08-13T21:18:09.927",
  "metrics": {
    "cvssMetricV31": [
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        "cvssData": {
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          "attackVector": "NETWORK",
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          "baseScore": 6.5,
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          "confidentialityImpact": "HIGH",
          "integrityImpact": "NONE",
          "privilegesRequired": "LOW",
          "scope": "UNCHANGED",
          "userInteraction": "NONE",
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          "version": "3.1"
        },
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        "impactScore": 3.6,
        "source": "security@elastic.co",
        "type": "Secondary"
      }
    ],
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        "ssvcData": {
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          "options": [
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            {
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          ],
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    }
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}

GHSA-994R-4F38-CVGV

Vulnerability from github – Published: 2026-08-13 21:36 – Updated: 2026-08-13 21:36

Details

Severity

6.5 (Medium)


                  
                    CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N

Show details on source website

JSON

To clipboard

{
  "affected": [],
  "aliases": [
    "CVE-2026-72648"
  ],
  "database_specific": {
    "cwe_ids": [
      "CWE-526"
    ],
    "github_reviewed": false,
    "github_reviewed_at": null,
    "nvd_published_at": "2026-08-13T20:17:25Z",
    "severity": "MODERATE"
  },
  "details": "Cleartext Storage of Sensitive Information in an Environment Variable (CWE-526) in Elastic Cloud on Kubernetes (ECK) can lead to information disclosure via Retrieve Embedded Sensitive Data (CAPEC-37). When ECK reconciles a Fleet Server resource that authenticates to Elasticsearch with a service account token, the token is written into the generated workload specification in cleartext rather than being referenced from the Kubernetes Secret that ECK maintains for the other credentials on the same path. Any principal able to read workload specifications in the affected namespace can therefore read a live Elasticsearch credential, even when Kubernetes RBAC does not grant that principal access to Secrets.",
  "id": "GHSA-994r-4f38-cvgv",
  "modified": "2026-08-13T21:36:08Z",
  "published": "2026-08-13T21:36:08Z",
  "references": [
    {
      "type": "ADVISORY",
      "url": "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-72648"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elastic-cloud-on-kubernetes-3-5-0-security-update-esa-2026-113/389493"
    }
  ],
  "schema_version": "1.4.0",
  "severity": [
    {
      "score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N",
      "type": "CVSS_V3"
    }
  ]
}

Sightings

Author	Source	Type	Date	Other

Nomenclature

Seen: The vulnerability was mentioned, discussed, or observed by the user.
Confirmed: The vulnerability has been validated from an analyst's perspective.
Published Proof of Concept: A public proof of concept is available for this vulnerability.
Exploited: The vulnerability was observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
Patched: The vulnerability was observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.
Not exploited: The vulnerability was not observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
Not confirmed: The user expressed doubt about the validity of the vulnerability.
Not patched: The vulnerability was not observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.

Detection rules are retrieved from Rulezet.

The MITRE ATT&CK techniques below are AI-generated suggestions, inferred from the description of the vulnerability by the CIRCL/vulnerability-attack-technique-classification-roberta-base model, served locally by ML-Gateway. They have not been verified by an analyst and are provided for guidance only.
The approach is described in our paper Mapping CVEs to MITRE ATT&CK Techniques: A Curated Gold-Set Classifier and the Limits of LLM-Assisted Label Expansion.

Action not permitted

CVE-2026-72648 (GCVE-0-2026-72648)

FKIE_CVE-2026-72648

GHSA-994R-4F38-CVGV

Tags

Sightings

Nomenclature