Elastic Beats inserts sensitive information into log file

Exploitation

No confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next marks exploitation only from CISA KEV.

CVSS

6.8 · CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N

EPSS

• CVE-2023-49922: 0.67% estimated exploitation activity in the next 30 days; percentile 51.89 (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-03). This is a model estimate, not proof of exploitation or customer exposure.

As published by the source; long descriptions are shortened.

An issue was discovered by Elastic whereby Beats and Elastic Agent would log a raw event in its own logs at the WARN or ERROR level if ingesting that event to Elasticsearch failed with any 4xx HTTP status code except 409 or 429. Depending on the nature of the event that Beats or Elastic Agent attempted to ingest, this could lead to the insertion of sensitive or private information in the Beats or Elastic Agent logs. Elastic has released 8.11.3 and 7.17.16 that prevents this issue by limiting these types of logs to DEBUG level logging, which is disabled by default.

Published by the source

12 Dec 2023, 21:31 UTC

Last modified by the source

25 Jun 2024, 14:06 UTC

Source last checked

26 Oct 2026, 15:04 UTC

1. Revision 1 · created · 26 Oct 2026

   Published from ghsa record GHSA-hj4r-2c9c-29h3

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# Patch Next advisory brief: CVE-2023-49922

Advisory: Elastic Beats inserts sensitive information into log file
IDs: CVE-2023-49922, GHSA-hj4r-2c9c-29h3
Record: https://patchnext.com/advisories/cve-2023-49922 (revision 1, source checked 26 Oct 2026, 15:04 UTC)
Inventory: none attached. This brief comes from a public page and does not say whether any deployment is affected.
Severity: Medium (CVSS 6.8)
Exploitation: no confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next confirms exploitation only from CISA KEV.
Vendor response: Vendor fix available; fixed versions by package: github.com/elastic/beats 8.11.3, 7.17.16; github.com/elastic/beats/v7 7.17.16. A vendor fix does not mean a deployment is fixed.

## Affected components
- Go github.com/elastic/beats: affected >= 8.0.0, < 8.11.3; >= 7.0.0, < 7.17.16; fixed in 8.11.3, 7.17.16
- Go github.com/elastic/beats/v7: affected >= 7.0.0, < 7.17.16; fixed in 7.17.16

## Suggested inspection (read-only)
- Go github.com/elastic/beats: check the installed version with your package manager.
- Go github.com/elastic/beats/v7: check the installed version with your package manager.

## Supported action
Upgrade each affected component to a fixed version on its release line. For a transitive dependency, upgrade the parent package or add an override or constraint, then regenerate the lockfile. Redeploy every environment that ran an affected version.

## Required regression checks
- Run the test suite and a production build.
- Exercise the features that depend on github.com/elastic/beats, github.com/elastic/beats/v7.
- Repeat the inspection and confirm that only fixed versions remain installed.

## Rollback considerations
- Keep the previous lockfile and deployment artifact. Rolling back reinstates the vulnerable version, so apply any documented mitigation while you fix forward.

## Unresolved questions
- Which deployments run an affected version?
- Exploitation status can change. Check again before lowering the priority.
- Mark the work resolved only after the fixed version is verified in production.

## Sources
- Verified: https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-hj4r-2c9c-29h3 (GitHub-reviewed advisory GHSA-hj4r-2c9c-29h3 lists affected ranges: Go github.com/elastic/beats >=8.0.0 =7.0.0 =7.0.0 <7.17.16)

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