CVE-2026-78600
Received Received - Intake

Incomplete Cleanup in Elastic Cloud on Kubernetes Leads to Privilege Abuse

Publication date: 2026-09-02

Last updated on: 2026-09-02

Assigner: Elastic

Description
Incomplete Cleanup (CWE-459) in Elastic Cloud on Kubernetes (ECK) can lead to unauthorized access via Privilege Abuse (CAPEC-122). Authentication credentials persist after a cross-namespace association has been denied by RBAC enforcement, allowing a low-privileged tenant to retain unauthorized read access to the associated Elasticsearch cluster.

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Meta Information

Published
2026-09-02
Last Modified
2026-09-02
Generated
2026-09-02
AI Q&A
2026-09-02
EPSS Evaluated
N/A
NVD
CVE-2026-78600
EUVD
EUVD-2026-70053

Affected Vendors & Products

Showing 3 associated CPEs
Vendor Product Version / Range
elastic cloud_on_kubernetes *
elastic cloud_on_kubernetes From 2.6.0 (inc) to 3.4.1 (inc)
elastic cloud_on_kubernetes 3.5.0

Helpful Resources

Exploitability

CWE
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KEV
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CWE ID Description
CWE-459 The product does not properly "clean up" and remove temporary or supporting resources after they have been used.

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Executive Summary

CVE-2026-78600 is an incomplete cleanup vulnerability in Elastic Cloud on Kubernetes (ECK) where authentication credentials persist after cross-namespace associations are denied by RBAC enforcement. This allows low-privileged users to retain unauthorized read access to Elasticsearch clusters.

Detection Guidance

To detect CVE-2026-78600, check if your Elastic Cloud on Kubernetes (ECK) version is between 2.6.0 and 3.4.1. Verify if cross-namespace associations were ever established and if RBAC was later enabled or permissions revoked. Use commands like kubectl get pods -n <namespace> to inspect ECK operator pods and kubectl logs <pod-name> -n <namespace> for errors related to credential retention.

Impact Analysis

The vulnerability may allow unauthorized users with low privileges to access sensitive data in Elasticsearch clusters they should not have access to. This could lead to data leaks or unauthorized modifications if combined with other vulnerabilities.

Compliance Impact

This vulnerability could potentially impact compliance with GDPR and HIPAA by allowing unauthorized access to sensitive data. The flaw enables low-privileged users to retain read access to Elasticsearch clusters even after RBAC enforcement denies cross-namespace associations, which may violate data access control requirements in these regulations.

Mitigation Strategies

Upgrade Elastic Cloud on Kubernetes (ECK) to version 3.5.0 or later immediately. If upgrading is not possible, avoid establishing cross-namespace associations or ensure RBAC is consistently enforced from the start. No other workarounds are available.

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