CVE-2026-72648
MEDIUMDescription
Cleartext 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.
How to fix
TridentStack Control can deploy fixes like this automatically across your Windows, macOS, and Linux fleet. See how it works
Remediation is compiled from vendor and distribution security advisories. Always confirm against the linked source for your exact version and platform.
CVSS v3 Vector
Exploitability
Impact
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
Exploit Intelligence
Low risk: more likely to be exploited than 24% of all known CVEs.
References
Related Vulnerabilities
Other CWE-526 vulnerabilities, ordered by exploit likelihood. View all
| CVE | Severity | CVSS | EPSS | Exploited | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CVE-2014-2377 | Medium | 5.0 | 1.8% | - | - |
| CVE-2023-5720 | High | 7.7 | 0.8% | - | Fix |
| CVE-2023-35931 | Low | 3.1 | 0.8% | - | Fix |
| CVE-2024-11736 | Medium | 4.9 | 0.8% | - | Fix |
| CVE-2026-49377 | Medium | 4.3 | 0.7% | - | Fix |
| CVE-2024-4369 | Medium | 6.8 | 0.7% | - | Fix |
Common questions
How do I fix CVE-2026-72648?
Upgrade elastic cloud on kubernetes to 3.5.0 or later.
Is CVE-2026-72648 being actively exploited?
Not that we know of. CVE-2026-72648 is not in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. Its EPSS score of 0.31% is the estimated probability that it will be exploited in the next 30 days. That is higher than 24% of all scored CVEs.
How severe is CVE-2026-72648?
CVE-2026-72648 has a CVSS v3 base score of 6.5, rated medium. CVSS rates the technical impact if the vulnerability is exploited, not how likely that is, so weigh it alongside the exploit-prediction score when you decide what to patch first.
What does CVE-2026-72648 affect?
Published advisories record a fix for elastic cloud on kubernetes (NVD). Only products with a sourced advisory are listed, so treat this as what we can cite rather than a complete inventory.
Embed a live status badge for CVE-2026-72648
Markdown
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This product uses NVD data but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. EPSS scores courtesy of FIRST.org (https://www.first.org/epss). Source: CISA KEV Catalog. Data as of 2026-09-04.