CVE-2025-25009: 
Kibana vulnerability analysis and mitigation

CVE-2025-25009 is a critical Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability affecting Elastic's Kibana platform, discovered and disclosed in October 2025. The vulnerability affects Kibana versions 7.x (all versions ≤ 7.17.29) and versions 8.x-9.x (up to 9.1.4). This stored XSS vulnerability exists in Kibana's case file upload functionality, allowing attackers with file upload privileges to inject malicious JavaScript into stored pages (Security Online, Elastic Discuss).

The vulnerability carries a CVSS v3.1 score of 8.7 (High) with the vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N. The flaw specifically exists in Kibana's case file upload functionality, where improper neutralization of input during web page generation can lead to stored XSS attacks. The vulnerability requires the attacker to have file upload privileges to Kibana (Security Online, Elastic Discuss).

When exploited, this vulnerability could allow attackers to execute arbitrary JavaScript within Kibana via malicious file uploads, potentially leading to data theft, session hijacking, or privilege escalation within Kibana dashboards. The high severity score reflects the significant potential impact on confidentiality and integrity of the affected systems (Security Online).

Elastic has released patches in versions 8.18.8, 8.19.5, 9.0.8, and 9.1.5. For users unable to upgrade immediately and running versions ≥ 7.12 to < 9.0, a temporary workaround is available by enabling the advanced setting 'discover:searchFieldsFromSource: true'. However, there are no workarounds available for versions 9.0 and above, making immediate upgrading crucial for these versions (Security Online, Elastic Discuss).