CVE-2026-78609: elastic eck operator Incorrect Authorization
Vulnerability summary
CVE-2026-78609 is a medium (CVSS 5.4) Incorrect Authorization vulnerability in elastic eck operator. EPSS estimates a 0.15% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 3.7% of scored vulnerabilities.
Timeline
- 02-09-2026PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
- 02-09-2026Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.
Description
Incorrect Authorization (CWE-863) in Elastic Cloud on Kubernetes (ECK) can lead to unauthorized modification of data via Metadata Spoofing (CAPEC-690). An actor holding limited Kubernetes permissions confined to a single namespace could cause attacker-controlled certificate material to be included in the Elasticsearch client trust bundle managed by ECK in a separate namespace.
CVSS metrics
2 scores · 2 sources · 1 version- NVDNIST5.4MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N
EPSS trend
Probability
0.15%
Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days
Percentile
4%
Versus all other CVEs
30-day change
+0.06 pp
From 0.09% on 19-09-2026
Known exploited
Compare KEV catalogsNot in any of the 3 tracked catalogs.
Public exploits
0 foundNo public exploits indexed.
Weaknesses
CWE · root causeAffected systems
Elastic2 products
- eck operator≥ 2.6.0, ≤ 3.4.1
- elastic_cloud_on_kubernetes≥ 2.6.0, < 3.5.0
1 vendor · 2 products