CVE-2026-72648
MEDIUM 6.5Cleartext 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.
No known exploitation, public exploit, or elevated probability at this time. Track for changes.
Exploitation likelihood
0.3%chance of exploitation in 30 days · 20th percentile
Impact if exploited
6.5CVSS 3.1 · MEDIUM
- ConfidentialityHigh
- IntegrityNone
- AvailabilityNone
What an attacker needs
- ✓Access: Reachable over the network — no local access needed
- ⚠Privileges: Requires a low-privilege account
- ✓User interaction: No user interaction needed
- ✓Complexity: No special conditions — reliably repeatable
✓ lowers the bar for an attacker · ⚠ raises it
Proof of concept & exploit code
- github-search Search GitHub for public PoC repos
Test against your own equipment
curl -s https://vulnpedia.com/cve/CVE-2026-72648/poc.jsonMachine-readable PoC index for this CVE (for automation).Listed for defensive triage, patch verification, and authorized testing on systems you own. Machine-readable: /cve/CVE-2026-72648/poc.json
Weakness (CWE)
- CWE-526: Cleartext Storage of Sensitive Information in an Environment Variable
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
All CVSS metrics
- MEDIUM 6.5 v3.1 · CNA Primary
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N - MEDIUM 6.5 v3.1 · NVD Secondary
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N