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threat-modeling.md

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Threat Model Analysis for olivere/elastic

Threat: Insecure Elasticsearch Credentials Management

  • Description: Attacker gains access to Elasticsearch credentials stored insecurely. They can then use these credentials to directly access Elasticsearch, bypassing application-level controls and gaining full access to data and cluster operations.
    • Impact: Data breach, data manipulation, data loss, denial of service.
    • Affected Elastic Component: Elasticsearch Authentication, olivere/elastic client configuration.
    • Risk Severity: Critical
    • Mitigation Strategies:
      • Use environment variables with restricted access for credentials.
      • Employ secrets management systems (e.g., HashiCorp Vault).
      • Utilize configuration files with restricted file system permissions.
      • Avoid hardcoding credentials in application code.
      • Regularly rotate Elasticsearch credentials.

Threat: Insufficient Elasticsearch Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)

  • Description: Attacker compromises the application and leverages the application's Elasticsearch user which has overly broad permissions. They can then perform actions beyond the application's intended scope within Elasticsearch, potentially impacting sensitive indices or other applications sharing the cluster.
    • Impact: Data breach, data manipulation, privilege escalation, cross-application impact.
    • Affected Elastic Component: Elasticsearch RBAC, Elasticsearch Security Features.
    • Risk Severity: High
    • Mitigation Strategies:
      • Implement granular RBAC in Elasticsearch.
      • Grant the application user only the least privilege necessary.
      • Regularly review and audit Elasticsearch user permissions.
      • Separate indices and access controls based on application needs.

Threat: Authentication Bypass or Weak Authentication Mechanisms in Elasticsearch

  • Description: Attacker exploits vulnerabilities in Elasticsearch authentication or bypasses authentication if it's not properly enabled. This grants them complete unauthorized access to the Elasticsearch cluster and all its data.
    • Impact: Complete data breach, full control over Elasticsearch cluster, denial of service, data manipulation, data loss.
    • Affected Elastic Component: Elasticsearch Authentication, Elasticsearch Security Features.
    • Risk Severity: Critical
    • Mitigation Strategies:
      • Enforce strong authentication mechanisms (e.g., native realm, LDAP, API keys).
      • Disable default credentials and remove test accounts.
      • Regularly update Elasticsearch to patch authentication vulnerabilities.
      • Enable HTTPS for all Elasticsearch communication.
      • Implement network segmentation to restrict access to Elasticsearch.

Threat: Data Exposure through Elasticsearch APIs

  • Description: Attacker directly queries Elasticsearch APIs. Due to overly permissive access controls or insecure query construction, they can retrieve sensitive data that should not be accessible.
    • Impact: Data breach, privacy violations, reputational damage.
    • Affected Elastic Component: Elasticsearch APIs, Elasticsearch Query DSL, olivere/elastic query building functions.
    • Risk Severity: High
    • Mitigation Strategies:
      • Implement strict RBAC to control API access.
      • Carefully design Elasticsearch mappings to minimize sensitive data storage.
      • Sanitize and validate user inputs in the application before constructing queries.
      • Use parameterized queries or query templates in olivere/elastic to prevent injection flaws.
      • Regularly audit Elasticsearch access logs.

Threat: Data Injection and Manipulation via Elasticsearch APIs

  • Description: Attacker exploits vulnerabilities in data ingestion logic or Elasticsearch mappings to inject malicious data or manipulate existing data by crafting malicious requests to Elasticsearch APIs.
    • Impact: Data corruption, data integrity issues, application malfunction, potential for secondary attacks.
    • Affected Elastic Component: Elasticsearch Indexing APIs, Elasticsearch Mappings, olivere/elastic indexing functions.
    • Risk Severity: High
    • Mitigation Strategies:
      • Thoroughly validate and sanitize all data before indexing.
      • Implement input validation on the application side.
      • Use appropriate Elasticsearch mappings and data types.
      • Consider using Elasticsearch ingest pipelines for data sanitization.
      • Implement rate limiting on indexing operations to mitigate bulk injection attacks.

Threat: Data Breach during Data Transfer

  • Description: Attacker intercepts network traffic between the application and Elasticsearch if communication is not encrypted, exposing sensitive data in transit.
    • Impact: Data breach, credential compromise, privacy violations.
    • Affected Elastic Component: Network communication between olivere/elastic and Elasticsearch, olivere/elastic transport configuration.
    • Risk Severity: High
    • Mitigation Strategies:
      • Enforce HTTPS for all communication between the application and Elasticsearch.
      • Configure TLS/SSL in olivere/elastic client and Elasticsearch cluster.
      • Use strong TLS/SSL ciphers and protocols.

Threat: Data at Rest Exposure in Elasticsearch

  • Description: Attacker gains access to Elasticsearch storage. If data at rest encryption is not enabled, they can directly access and read sensitive data stored in Elasticsearch.
    • Impact: Data breach, large-scale data exposure, compliance violations.
    • Affected Elastic Component: Elasticsearch Data Storage, Elasticsearch Data at Rest Encryption feature.
    • Risk Severity: Critical
    • Mitigation Strategies:
      • Enable Elasticsearch data at rest encryption.
      • Properly manage encryption keys, including rotation and secure storage.
      • Implement physical security measures for Elasticsearch infrastructure.
      • Use secure cloud storage options with encryption for Elasticsearch data.

Threat: Denial of Service (DoS) attacks against Elasticsearch via olivere/elastic

  • Description: Attacker sends a flood of malicious or resource-intensive requests to Elasticsearch through the application using olivere/elastic, overwhelming the cluster and causing service unavailability.
    • Impact: Application downtime, degraded performance, service disruption.
    • Affected Elastic Component: Elasticsearch Query Engine, Elasticsearch Indexing Engine, olivere/elastic query and indexing functions.
    • Risk Severity: High
    • Mitigation Strategies:
      • Implement rate limiting and request throttling in the application.
      • Optimize Elasticsearch queries and indexing operations.
      • Properly size and configure Elasticsearch cluster resources.
      • Monitor Elasticsearch cluster performance and resource utilization.
      • Use Elasticsearch circuit breakers to prevent runaway queries.
      • Implement network-level DoS protection.

Threat: Vulnerabilities in Elasticsearch Software

  • Description: Security vulnerabilities are discovered in the Elasticsearch server software itself. An attacker could exploit these vulnerabilities to compromise the Elasticsearch cluster, potentially leading to severe consequences.
    • Impact: Elasticsearch cluster compromise, data breach, denial of service, remote code execution, privilege escalation.
    • Affected Elastic Component: Elasticsearch server software, specific modules or features with vulnerabilities.
    • Risk Severity: High to Critical (depending on vulnerability)
    • Mitigation Strategies:
      • Regularly update Elasticsearch to the latest stable version and apply security patches.
      • Subscribe to Elasticsearch security mailing lists and monitor advisories.
      • Implement a vulnerability management process for Elasticsearch.
      • Harden Elasticsearch server configurations based on security best practices.