CVE-2015-1427: Elasticsearch Groovy Scripting Engine Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

Severity: critical (CVSS 9.8 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: yes — in CISA KEV since 2022-03-25
EPSS: 99.9% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: yes
Published: 2015-02-17 · updated 2026-06-17

Description

The Groovy scripting engine in Elasticsearch before 1.3.8 and 1.4.x before 1.4.3 allows remote attackers to bypass the sandbox protection mechanism and execute arbitrary shell commands via a crafted script.

Affected products

Elasticsearch: before 1.3.8; from 1.4.0 before 1.4.3 — fixed in 1.3.8, 1.4.3
Red Hat Fuse: 1.0.0

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Elasticsearch 1.3.8, 1.4.3. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/130368/Elasticsearch-1.3.7-1.4.2-Sandbox-Escape-Command-Execution.html
http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/130784/ElasticSearch-Unauthenticated-Remote-Code-Execution.html
http://www.elasticsearch.com/blog/elasticsearch-1-4-3-1-3-8-released/
http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/534689/100/0/threaded
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/72585
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2017:0868
https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/100850
https://www.elastic.co/community/security/
http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/130368/Elasticsearch-1.3.7-1.4.2-Sandbox-Escape-Command-Execution.html
http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/130784/ElasticSearch-Unauthenticated-Remote-Code-Execution.html
http://www.elasticsearch.com/blog/elasticsearch-1-4-3-1-3-8-released/
http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/534689/100/0/threaded

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