CVE-2023-25806

Amazon Opensearch ≤ 1.3.9

Published

02 March 2023

Modified

21 November 2024

Patch / advisory

View advisory

CVSS Score v3.1 5.3

Click a component to see what it means

Raw vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N

EPSS Score 0.0033 24th percentile

Risk Priority 44 floored blend · peak EPSS

CVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.

Summary

CVE-2023-25806 is a medium-severity Observable Timing Discrepancy (CWE-208) vulnerability in Amazon Opensearch. Its CVSS base score is 5.3 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Steganography (T1001.002); ranked at the 24th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

EU & UK References

🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2023-0980

Vulnerability Data

OpenSearch Security is a plugin for OpenSearch that offers encryption, authentication and authorization. There is an observable discrepancy in the authentication response time between calls where the user provided exists and calls where it does not. This issue only affects…

calls using the internal basic identity provider (IdP), and not other externally configured IdPs. Patches were released in versions 1.3.9 and 2.6.0, there are no workarounds.

CWE(s): CWE-208 CWE-203

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1001.002 Steganography Command And Control

Adversaries may use steganographic techniques to hide command and control traffic to make detection efforts more difficult.

attack.mitre.org →

T1003.001 LSASS Memory Credential Access

Adversaries may attempt to access credential material stored in the process memory of the Local Security Authority Subsystem Service (LSASS).

attack.mitre.org →

T1003.003 NTDS Credential Access

Adversaries may attempt to access or create a copy of the Active Directory domain database in order to steal credential information, as well as obtain other information about domain members such as devices, users, and access rights.

attack.mitre.org →

T1003.004 LSA Secrets Credential Access

Adversaries with SYSTEM access to a host may attempt to access Local Security Authority (LSA) secrets, which can contain a variety of different credential materials, such as credentials for service accounts.

attack.mitre.org →

T1003.006 DCSync Credential Access

Adversaries may attempt to access credentials and other sensitive information by abusing a Windows Domain Controller's application programming interface (API)(Citation: Microsoft DRSR Dec 2017) (Citation: Microsoft GetNCCChanges) (Citati…

attack.mitre.org →

T1006 Direct Volume Access Stealth

Adversaries may directly access a volume to bypass file access controls and file system monitoring.

attack.mitre.org →

Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2023-31141Same product: Amazon Opensearch

CVE-2026-3337Same vendor: Amazon

CVE-2023-45807Same product: Amazon Opensearch

CVE-2023-23933Same product: Amazon Opensearch

CVE-2023-23613Same product: Amazon Opensearch

CVE-2025-9624Same product: Amazon Opensearch

CVE-2023-23612Same product: Amazon Opensearch

CVE-2024-45052Shared CWE-203, CWE-208

CVE-2025-9031Shared CWE-203, CWE-208

CVE-2023-25529Shared CWE-203, CWE-208

Affected Assets

amazon

opensearch

≤ 1.3.9 · 2.0.0 — 2.6.0

amazon

opensearch security

≤ 1.3.9 · 2.0.0 — 2.6.0

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent

Stop it (NIST 800-53)

—

Detect

Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

—

Harden

Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

1 hardening rule · 1 OS baseline

Validate

Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)

V11.2.4

Likely Mitigating Controls AI

Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.

SC-30 Concealment and Misdirection

addresses: CWE-203 CWE-208

Misdirection can normalize or falsify responses to eliminate observable discrepancies that aid reconnaissance.

SC-31 Covert Channel Analysis

addresses: CWE-208 CWE-203

Observable timing discrepancies are a primary mechanism for constructing covert timing channels; analysis identifies and bounds them, limiting exploitation.

SI-11 Error Handling

addresses: CWE-203

Prevents attackers from using observable differences in error responses to infer internal system details or state.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-06 partial match

blocks

Secure SDLC practices directly require constant-time implementations that eliminate observable timing discrepancies.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

A.5.14 Information transfer partial match

removes

A.5.15 Access control partial match

removes

A.5.16 Identity management partial match

removes

A.5.17 Authentication information partial match

removes

A.5.18 Access rights partial match

removes

A.6.8 Information security event reporting partial match

removes